Six police officers who shot at a black man outside a California Taco Bell in February fired 55 bullets in less than four seconds, a bombshell report has revealed.
The shocking statistic was made public on Thursday after local media outlets requested the full release of an analysis of the fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Willie McCoy.
Cops were called to a Vallejo Taco Bell on February 9 after McCoy reportedly fell asleep in the drive-thru lane with a gun on his lap. The officers claim the aspiring rapper awoke and made a sudden movement before they fired at him.<
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The 51-page report on the police shooting was complied by David Blake, a retired peace officer with an extensive history in providing training to officers in use of force and human factors psychology in multiple states.
He found that that it took the six cops just 3.5 seconds to fire the rounds at McCoy, who was sitting in the driver’s seat of his Mercedes-Benz.
McCoy died after being sprayed with more than 20 bullets.
On February 9, six officers fired 55 rounds at aspiring rapper Willie McCoy (pictured) in less than four seconds. He died at the scene
The shocking statistic was made public on Thursday after local media outlets requested the release of an analysis of the fatal shooting
The full release of the Blake’s report comes on the same day that McCoy’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in a California court.
Civil rights attorney John Burris filed the suit on Thursday against Vallejo’s city manager, chief of police and the six police officers who fired at McCoy.
In the lawsuit, McCoy’s family allege the cops violated McCoy’s constitutional rights by repeatedly firing at him.
They further claim the Vallejo police department has a history of officer misconduct that includes excessive force.
The lawsuit states that the department’s ‘unconstitutional policing has become so dire and widespread that the City’s residents live in terror of the police department.’
However last month, Blake’s report found that – although officers shot 55 rounds in 3.5 seconds – the shooting ‘was reasonable and in line with contemporary training and police practices’.
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Civil rights attorney John Burris (pictured) is acting on behalf of the McCoy family, and filed the lawsuit in a California court on Thursday
In the lawsuit filed on Thursday, McCoy’s family allege the cops violated the young man’s constitutional rights by repeatedly firing their guns at him
In his report, Blake writes about six police interviews, six police body cam videos and one police report that he was given. He mentions that he is only relying on what’s visually available in the video frames he was provided.
‘Officers are not required to wait until a weapon is pointed at them to take the necessary steps to save their own lives,’ he writes in his report, also saying officers shouted verbal commands for three seconds before they started firing.
Blake adds: ‘Stop shooting research typically asks officer participants to pull the trigger as rapidly as possible and to stop once a visual stimulus (light) ceases to illuminate.’
The expert references the stressful ‘hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal response’ that may have occurred in the officers given that McCoy had a handgun in his lap.
Police have since claimed that McCoy’s gun was loaded with an extended 14-round magazine.
However, Blake’s report concludes that he ‘reserves the right to add, change and delete any of my opinions based on any provision of additional information not reviewed at the time this report was completed’.
An investigator looked at six interviews, six body cam videos and one police report before determining last month that the shooting was ‘was reasonable’
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