Vallejo police officer cleared in 2018 deadly shooting
VALLEJO, Calif. (AP) — No criminal charges will be filed against a police officer who shot and killed a man during a 2018 struggle in the San Francisco Bay Area, it was announced Friday.
Officer Ryan McMahon was justified in using deadly force after the officer said Ronell Foster of Vallejo grabbed his flashlight and threatened him, Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams said.
Foster posed “an immediate and extreme threat” to the officer during the Feb. 13, 2018, shooting, an investigative report from the DA’s office concluded.
McMahon shot Foster seven times. The 33-year-old father of two died at the scene.
Foster’s family was “sickened and outraged” by the district attorney’s decision, Melissa Nold, an attorney for the family, told the Vallejo Times-Herald.
The family is suing the city for wrongful death.
McMahon said he had tried to stop Foster, who was riding his bicycle in and out of traffic without a headlamp. But Foster biked away and then ran off on foot until he stumbled in a dark alley and fell, leading to a scuffle.
The officer’s body camera video, released more than a year after the shooting, showed the last moments of the confrontation. But camera movement makes it hard to say definitively whether the footage shows Foster holding the flashlight, the Times-Herald said.
McMahon was one of six officers who shot and killed another man, 21-year-old Willie McCoy, in February 2019 as he sat in his car at a Taco Bell drive-through window. An employee called 911 after McCoy passed out with the engine running. Officers shot him when he appeared to be reaching for a gun in his lap, police said.
That shooting remains under investigation.