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Family Says After Watching Body Cam Video, California Rapper Was Sleeping When Cops Executed Him

Family Says After Watching Body Cam Video, California Rapper Was Sleeping When Cops Executed Him

The family of a California rapper who was fatally shot by police in his car said an officer’s bodycam footage suggests he was not awake when they opened fire, and that he appeared to be scratching himself, not grabbing for a weapon.

“What we saw was a sleeping man,” David Harrison, a cousin of Willie McCoy, 20, said. “He reaches with his right arm to his left shoulder, scratching. He wasn’t awake. There wasn’t enough time for him to wake up.”

Police in the Bay Area city of Vallejo were responding to a call about a man who was unresponsive in a Taco Bell drive-thru with a handgun on his lap. The bodycam footage, which was taken from one of the six officers who shot at McCoy, was shown Wednesday to three family members, including Harrison, who viewed the video for about 1 1/2 hours.

In the video, he said, officers told McCoy to show them his hands and then quickly shot him, adding that he never heard the officers identify themselves as police.

“It was like almost instantaneous,” Harrison, 48, said. “I can’t tell you how many seconds, but if I was to estimate, from what I’ve seen, maybe from a couple of seconds.”

Harrison said he didn’t see his younger cousin’s face from the vantage point of the officer’s bodycam, but that for about 15 minutes before the shooting, the officers were standing around and didn’t appear to have a plan of action that could have prevented anyone from getting hurt.

The family’s description of events after viewing the bodycam footage differs from the Vallejo police’s official version following the shooting.

According to Vallejo police, a call came in at around 10:30 p.m. on Feb. 9 from a Taco Bell employee who said there was a driver “slumped over” in a silver Mercedes-Benz in the drive-thru.

Police said they arrived and attempted to box in McCoy’s car, which was still running, to prevent any erratic movement. That’s when they said he woke up but failed to listen to commands.

 

See More-  Source:  NBC News

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