California cops fatally shot Steven Taylor, 33, for allegedly swinging bat
Man's family disputes the police's account of the incident; secures attorney
Officers in San Leandro, California fatally shot a man inside a Walmart store on Sunday for allegedly swinging a bat near the front entrance of the store.
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Officers in San Leandro, California fatally shot a man inside a Walmart store on Sunday. 33-year-old, Steven Taylor was allegedly swinging a bat near the front entrance of the store.
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Officers dispatched to the scene deployed their tasers to no avail, and an officer fired one shot to disarm the man. The shot proved to be fatal.
The officer, who has not been identified, is a 20-plus year veteran of the police force and is currently on administrative leave. Lieutenant Ted Henderson said that the use of force was reasonable in this case as the officers had tried to disarm Tyler, who was African American, with their tasers, “If there is a taser deployment, there has to be some type of perceived threat and this is an active threat.”
In a statement, Walmart responded “We appreciate the quick response of local authorities and are thankful no one else was injured. We will continue to assist law enforcement and are referring all requests for information to them.”
On Twitter, a post claiming to be an account of the incident has surfaced. It is from a man identified only as “Mike,” who alleges that he is a Loss Prevention employee at the store. Mike states that Taylor was irate and told bystanders that he wanted to die.
Actual story! Something you don’t see everyday. From my homie Mike, head of LP at Walmart San Leandro. Before the media tries to twist any of this shit into something else, and out of respect for the suspects family and SLPD, here’s what actually happened. #walmart #shooting pic.twitter.com/WqCyxHNe39
— Papa Steez (@bimmastzy) April 19, 2020
S. Lee Merritt-noted civil rights attorney representing the family disputes the police account of the shooting stating that there here was not one shot fired, but three and ‘sufficient evidence’ to charge the officer involved.
There is a by-stander video of the event and San Leandro police plan to release body cam footage later this week.
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James Burch is with the Anti-Police Terror Project, explains the bystander video, “What I saw in that video was a person in crisis and I would expect that any person who is in crisis would be dealt with compassion.”
San Leandro is located in the Bay Area outside of Oakland, California.
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