Protests erupt after police killing of San Francisco man
The Daly City Police Department has reportedly released only a few details regarding the incident
The family of Roger Allen, 44, who was killed by Daly City, CA police on April 7, gathered with dozens of community supporters on Wednesday to call for transparency in the case of Allen’s death, reported the San Francisco Examiner.
Allen died in a San Francisco hospital after a police officer reportedly shot him the chest, just a few days before the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright by a police officer on April 11 in neighboring Brooklyn Center, MN.
“My family wants the truth and we want justice,” said Talika Fletcher, Allen’s sister. “There’s too many Black brothers and Black sisters out here dying behind cops. It’s not fair, regardless of what color they are it’s not fair. You are supposed to protect us, not kill us. Now we are scared of y’all.”
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The Daly City Police Department has reportedly released only a few details regarding the incident, and city officials have declined to release the names of any of the officers involved. County prosecutors have provided a more composite account of the events leading to Allen’s death.
According to the Examiner‘s report of San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe‘s statement, Allen was sitting in the front passenger seat of a parked truck with two other people when the police approached the vehicle asking whether the driver needed help with a damaged tire.
Allen reportedly struggled with one of the four officers who had arrived on the scene, after an officer noticed “what appeared to be a Glock firearm” on Allen’s lap. The officer reached into the truck and grabbed the gun and Allen’s hand to “prevent it being fired at the officers or the other vehicle occupants” said Wagstaffe.
The tussle allegedly resulted in an officer being struck in the forehead by what was likely a BB fired from Allen’s fake gun, as shared by Wagstaffe. When the fake gun was pointed at the face of the officer struggling with Allen, another officer fired his gun twice, once in Allen’s chest and once again into the truck.
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“To our knowledge, all that information is not true,” said Jas Ordonez, an organizer with the local social justice advocacy group 4DalyCity, who like Allen’s family, reportedly disputes the official account of the shooting. “The family’s ready to speak their truth. Right now, they’re feeling obviously heartbroken. They want transparency.”
Fletcher, in disbelief of the official report of the incident, feels the story contradicts her experience of her brother. “He was a good man, he was a loving brother, a good father,” she said. “Things y’all saying that’s not my brother. Y’all never should have did it.”
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Civil rights attorney John Burris, who has agreed to investigate the circumstances surrounding the shooting at the request of Allen’s family, said “All I know is that the man is dead and we now find out that there was a fake gun that was there.”
Burris’ firm is known for managing cases of police brutality, and they intend to determine how the police came to arrive at the scene in the first place, according to the Examiner.
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