Citizens gather for Monterrosa billboard
Sign is a block away from police station
Due to the high number of officer-involved shootings in the past decade, including the killing of 22-year- old Sean Monterrosa on June 2, the city of Vallejo has kept a close watchful eye on its police department.
Now, in a way, Monterrosa will be looking as well.
A group of around 100 people showed up Sunday at Wilson Park to reflect and pay tribute to the life of Monterrosa before walking a few blocks to Maine Street between Monterey and Amador streets. Rising high just above the train tracks is a billboard of Monterosa that reads, “Justice for Sean Monterrosa.”
The billboard is just a block away from the Vallejo Police Department.
“Obviously a lot of emotions go on a day like this. But it is nice to see the billboard and see the result of what a lot of people helped with,” Monterrosa’s sister, Michelle, said. “The police, whether they are coming to work or leaving, they have to see this billboard. It seems like the police department have turned their cheek on the families that have suffered the last couple of years. We’re putting in the work now to make change so maybe we can save some future lives. When we see this gathering today, it makes us
feel proud, it makes us feel acknowledged. We can’t forget about all these names.”
Louis Michael, a candidate running for Vallejo City Council in District 3 and one of the main organizers of Vessels of Vallejo that had a fundraiser over the summer to pay for the billboard, originally tried to get the billboard even closer to the police station. Still, he’s satisfied with its current location.
“This is the best it gets,” Michael said, with a grin. “It would have been nice to have it in front of the station, but they ( VPD) still have to see it every day. We’re going to put in another billboard in Vallejo, but it will probably be somewhere with a little higher flow of traffic so more people can see it.”
Monterrosa was shot by Vallejo Police Officer Jarrett Tonn in front of a Walgreens while Vallejo was under curfew in response to looting. At the time of the shooting, Tonn said he believed a hammer in Monterrosa’s pocket was a gun. Body cam footage, released the next month, did not show Monterrosa at the time of the shooting or moments previous to the shooting. Although the Bay Area News group identified the shooter as Tonn, VPD has still not made a statement that Tonn was the shooter.
The VPD has come under more scrutiny in the past months due to evidence from the night being destroyed, including the windshield of the vehicle involved in the incident. More scrutiny came
when the news organization Open Vallejo released a story in late July claiming VPD officers over the years had bent the points of their badges each time they had had a kill in the line of duty.
Soon after the Monterrosa shooting, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi publicly called for the FBI to investigate the shooting.
“The police killing of Sean Monterrosa was a horrible act of brutality that continues to shake our Bay Area community,” Pelosi said in July. “Recent reports that key evidence in the investigation was destroyed are deeply disturbing and highlight the urgency and necessity of an outside, independent federal investigation. I join Sean’s family, Vallejo city officials and community members in calling for an FBI investigation into Sean’s murder, including into the destruction of essential evidence in this homicide case.”
In August, the Monterrosa family filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Vallejo, the Vallejo Police Department and Tonn. The Monterrosa family is represented by civil rights attorney John Burris.
During the march the names of many of the people killed in officer-related shootings were written on yellow umbrellas. These umbrellas were then passed out to marchers at Wilson Park. Maggie Harrison with Wall of Many passed out over 60 umbrellas, nearly 30 of which featured the names of those killed in the Bay Area.
After the short march to the billboard from Wilson Park, a moment of silence was held for Monterrosa,
before both of his sisters, Michelle and Ashley both gave statements.
“Best believe Vallejo PD will know that we are doing everything in our power to make sure our family is the last one in Vallejo to see their loved ones murdered on the hands of police,” Michelle said. “We will do everything in our power to make sure that is and not see these children growing up in this environment anymore.”
The sign, which went up on Sept. 22, is exactly the same as the one that was previously displayed on Irving Street between 9th and 8th avenues in San Francisco. The artist is Oree Originol’s and it is presented by Premiere Jr.
In 2014 Oree Originol launched Justice for Our Lives, an open source digital portrait series of people killed by U. S. law enforcement. Inspired by Black Lives Matter activism, the black- and-white portraits have served as pivotal instruments in the fight for justice against state-sponsored terrorism. On Sunday he claimed to have roughly 95 portraits, which he hopes to possibly put into a book in 2021.
The idea for the billboard came from of Vessel of Vallejo’s organizers, Chris Thorson, who was on hand for the Sunday event.
“I saw what Oree Original was doing on Instagram an exhibition Premier Jr. and I thought, we should have something like that in Vallejo,” Thorson said. “Everyone was very supportive and helped Vessels navigate through the process. Originally we were looking at other places for the billboard that had some meaning,
like near the Walgreens, but we couldn’t find a good place with who were going through with the billboard (Clear Channel). So we found this site with is in close proximity to the police station and we thought it would resonate with the justice missing in his case.”
Vessels of Vallejo received permission from Monterrosa’s family in July to put up the artwork and soon after a fundraising site was made. It got an immediate response. During the first night of operation the site cleared the $1,200 needed to reserve the billboard space for a month. Less than a week later the site had generated $3,103 through 52 donors. One anonymous person donated $1,010.
Due to the support, the billboard has been rented out for at least six months, with Monterrosa scheduled to be on it for the next two months. After two months, a plan is in place to have numerous victims of officer-involved shootings rotate on the billboard.
“The plan is with Vessels of Vallejo to not only highlight Sean but all the unarmed black and brown men murdered on the hands of Vallejo police,” Michelle Monterrosa said. “So we’ll find a way to highlight to everyone’s family member up here. Their murderers, the cops, if they are still employed, will remember their names and their stories.”
Ashley Monterrosa said she remember Sean every day.
“I remember him for different reasons, depending on what I’m doing that day,” the younger sister said. “I think in the last year, this has been seen as
a movement and an awakening for sure. But we’re turning our pain into power. We’re trying to turn things around. We’re regular people, not extremists. We want accountability. There have been a whole bunch of people not holding anyone accountable.”