The City of Vallejo has approved a settlement in its case with the family of Willie McCoy. The price tag is $5 million, just short of the largest in the city’s history.
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The settlement comes nearly five years after the 20-year-old was shot at least 51 times by six Vallejo officers outside of the then Taco Bell drive-thru on Admiral Callaghan Lane on Feb. 9, 2019.
McCoy family attorney Melissa Nold said the settlement was unexpected at this time. “No amount of money,” said the family, “could ever be enough for the justice of Willie McCoy.”
The lawyer also said the decision to settle was a difficult one for the family.
“We took a long time to think about it. It was dark when we first started toiling about it and it was dark when we decided,” Nold said. “I think with any family that goes through something like this the general feeling is that eventually the system will screw you. We were pushing for a trial, but that is something we couldn’t have control over. We were expected to have major filings next month, but there would be appeals and a trial date wouldn’t be until all the attorneys (Nold said there was approximately a dozen covering both sides) and that could take as long as until 2028. This could go on for years, possibly 15 years, so does the family want to wait that long?
People gather to remember Willie McCoy on the anniversary of McCoy’s killing by Vallejo police officers as he slept in his car in the drive-thru at the Taco Bell on Admiral Callaghan in Vallejo. The city of Vallejo recently awarded McCoy’s family five million dollars in a settlement. (Chris Riley/Times-Herald)
“I think we have revealed so much in this case over the past few years and this settlement is an acknowledgement that the police acted wrong,” Nold continued. “This is in the same arena as Ronell Foster in which a man was killed unarmed. They knew they had acted wrong as you don’t just give out $5 million to something you’re unsure of. We’re not celebrating, but it is nice to see an acknowledgement of wrong-doing.”
The family of Foster, who was killed by Vallejo police in 2018, received the largest settlement to date from the City with a sum of $5.7 million in Sept. of 2020.
The city of Vallejo issued a statement on Wednesday morning saying, “does not imply an admission of liability or wrongdoing by the City of Vallejo or any City employee.” It also went on to read that the formal settlement agreement has not yet been drafted or signed but will be made publicly available as soon as it is finalized.”
“On January 9, 2024, the Vallejo City Council approved a settlement reached in mediation in the McCoy case in the amount of $5 million inclusive of all attorney’s fees and costs,” the city of Vallejo statement reads. “The settlement agreement provides both sides with a certain outcome and avoids the expense of what would likely have been several additional years of litigation.
“Regardless of the circumstances, we do want to acknowledge that all loss of life is tragic and continue to offer our sympathy and condolences to the family and friends of Mr. McCoy,” the statement continued.
Meanwhile Nold said the apology from the City has come nearly five years too late.
From left to right: Lawyer Melissa Nold, Willie McCoy’s brother Kori McCoy and Willie McCoy’s cousin, David Harrison stand in front of the drive-thru where Willie McCoy was shot and killed by Vallejo Police Department on Feb. 9, 2019. (Thomas Gase/ Times-Herald)
“This is its first apology on the situation in five years,” Nold said. “It would have been nice to have had this apology during the tough times in 2019.”
On the night of Feb. 9, 2019 Vallejo police were called to the scene after reports that McCoy was unresponsive and appeared asleep with a gun in his lap at a then-Taco Bell drive-thru at 974 Admiral Callaghan Lane. Officers arrived, parking on all sides of the vehicle and surrounding it, guns drawn. Soon after, McCoy leaned forward, and officers began to yell commands before opening fire.
Officers shot the windshield and the front passenger window — which was broken and replaced with a plastic sheet — dozens of times.
The postmortem examination, taken by Dr. Arnold Josselsan, Forensic Pathologist for Solano County over two days on Feb. 11-12 of 2019, showed there were 38 gunshot wounds and 13 fatal gunshot wounds to the right and left chest area. The cause of the death was gunshot wounds to the chest.
In January 2021, a report from special prosecutor Michael Ramos concluded that Vallejo police officers’ actions in the shooting were justified. The report features statements by six officers involved in the McCoy shooting — Anthony Cano, Collin Eaton, Bryan Glick, Jordan Patzer, Mark Thompson and Ryan McMahon.
McMahon was issued his Notice of Termination a few months earlier on Oct. 1, 2020 after violations in the shooting of Ronell Foster in February of 2018. He was given the notice after an Internal Affairs investigation concluded, among other things, that “McMahon violated department policies by engaging in unsafe conduct and neglect for basic firearm safety,” a news release stated in October of 2020.
Also interviewed in the report were eight eyewitnesses, including Taco Bell’s assistant manager and employees.
According to the assistant manager, “other employees said they heard horns honking in front of the restaurant. The assistant manager looked out the window east, toward the drive-thru and saw a man sitting at the entrance to the area.
“The assistant manager then walked out and walked toward a silver Mercedes. The assistant manager could not see anything due to the heavily tinted windows. He got not closer than six feet. He then went back into the store and called 911 and told the police department that there was a car idling in the drive-thru, and could not see how many people were in the car due to the tinted windows.”
Willie McCoy is just one of 150 headstone markers for people of color that have been killed by police. Artists in Minneapolis created the symbolic cemetery located on East 37th Street, a block from George Floyd Square. (Thomas Gase – Times-Herald file)
Many of McCoy’s family insist there is no clear evidence that McCoy ever had a gun although initial reports by Vallejo police said there was one.
“Myself and David (Harrison, Willie’s cousin), have watched all 37 of the available body cams,” Kori McCoy said during a vigil last year. “We can’t acknowledge that he had a gun because we can’t see a gun. We’ve broken it down and these tapes have been sent out to people that do this for a living and no one can see a gun. Now, do you see a gun in the aftermath when daylight comes? But I can come to certain points in the video before Willie is yanked out of the car. Sound is cut. It looks like a football huddle and they’re planning the play. We don’t know what they’re discussing.”
The vigil came about a year after the discovery of damage in storage to the silver Mercedes that McCoy was shot and killed in, according to Nold. At that time, Nold and her associates discovered that the vehicle was not secured, and had its windows down, possibly exposing it to weather elements for up to three years. Nold told the Times-Herald that month that the car was also not stored under a roof or covering.
The lawyer for McCoy also said that police officers allegedly found previously undiscovered fragments of bullets and or discharged rounds that were later booked into evidence.
“I would say I was shocked to discover this, but these days I’m not shocked at anything anymore with the VPD,” Nold said in 2022. “You would think that a case this high profiled they would make better effects to keep the vehicle in better condition. With the windows open you could have birds, squirrels, who knows come into the car and just eat things up. It’s pretty disturbing that after all that’s happened no one made sure that this was better taken care of.”
Nold said on Wednesday morning that from a civil standpoint, the case with McCoy is close to officially being done, but far from being closed. The lawyer said that the next steps will be to have the evidence in the case pushed to a federal DOJ on the badge-bending cases and that evidence will soon be made public record.
“How long will that take? It depends on how long the insurance takes,” Nold said. “It could take weeks, but my guess is that it will happen sooner rather than later as the insurance wants to move on from this. We’re still going to pursue all avenues we have for more investigations to take place. The media has kept digging and a pandora’s box has been opened.”
A vigil has been held every year on Feb. 9 at the location of McCoy’s death. Nold said that something will be held on that day this year as well, but a location and time are not yet known.
