Rapper slain by police said to have gun
Vallejo man was sleeping in fast food drive-through lane
The 21-year-old man fatally shot by police in Vallejo on Saturday was identified as Willie McCoy, a local rapper known as Willie Bo with the group FBG.
Police shot McCoy after finding him asleep in a car in a Taco Bell drive-through lane with a handgun in his lap, officials said. Now McCoy’s family wants to know why their loved one was killed.
The incident began shortly after 10:30 p.m., when an employee of the restaurant on Admiral Callaghan Lane reported that a driver was slumped over in the driver’s seat of a silver Mercedes.
Officers arrived and found the man unresponsive, they said. But as they assessed the situation, the driver suddenly moved, police said.
“The officers told the driver to keep his hands visible, however the driver quickly reached for the handgun on his lap,” police said in a statement. “In fear for their own safety, the officers discharged their weapons at the driver.” McCoy died at the scene. His family questioned the police response, saying they would release a statement about his death Tuesday.
“It’s a really big loss. Really, really unexpected,” McCoy’s cousin, David Harrison, said Monday. “There’s a lot of grieving going on, trying to make sense of this thing.”
Vallejo police said Monday that McCoy’s semiautomatic
handgun had allegedly been reported stolen in Oregon and was fully functional when officers recovered it. It is unknown how McCoy obtained the firearm.
McCoy’s death is one of at least three fatal police shootings in the Bay Area in recent years in which police shot an armed man after trying to wake him up.
Last week, the family of a homeless man killed by Oakland police in 2018 sued the department for excessive use of force. Police said Joshua Pawlik was armed and sleeping between two houses when they arrived. They said they tried to wake Pawlik, and repeatedly told him to “get (his) hand off the gun.” Four police officers shot him.
Civil rights attorney John Burris, who represents Pawlik’s mother, criticized the agency’s account of what happened.
“All I know is that the man was sleeping,” Burris said of Pawlik. “And he wound up dead and shot, and there’s no evidence by them that he pointed the weapon at them, or that he pointed the weapon at anyone.”
The suit raises questions about when it’s appropriate for officers to shoot an armed subject, particularly one who is
“It’s a really big loss. ... There’s a lot of grieving going on, trying to make sense of this thing.” David Harrison, cousin of Willie McCoy
asleep or unconscious.
Burris also represented the family of Demouria Hogg, whom Oakland officers found passed out behind the wheel of his car near Lake Merritt in 2015. Police tried to wake him, breaking windows and using loudspeakers.
When Hogg abruptly woke up and reached toward his gun, an officer fired her gun twice, killing him.
Hogg’s family was awarded a $1.2 million settlement with the city.
The Vallejo Police Department is encouraging witnesses or anyone with additional information to contact Detective Scott Yates at 707-648-4533 or Detective Craig Long at 707648-4514.