The family of Sean Monterrosa speaks at a rally in San Francisco in 2021 demanding justice for Sean. Sean Monterrosa was killed by the Vallejo Police Department on June 2, 2020. (Thomas Gase – Times-Herald).
The Vallejo Police Department announced Monday the termination of Jarrett Tonn, the officer who killed Sean Monterrosa in a 2020 shooting.
Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams issued Tonn a “Notice of Discipline” after a neutral, independent third-party investigation showed that Tonn “violated several department policies, including, but not exhaustive of use of deadly force which was not objectively reasonable, failure to de-escalate the incident and failure to activate body-worn camera.”
Tonn can appeal the decision to arbitration.
On June 2, 2020, Tonn, believing Monterrosa was reaching for a gun in the parking lot of a Walgreens on Redwood Street, fired five shots from an AK-15 rifle from the back seat, killing Monterrosa with a shot to the neck and head. It was later determined that Monterrosa had, in fact, a claw hammer in his sweatshirt pocket. Later in 2020, the City of Vallejo was served with a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Monterrosa’s family.
For the last two years the Monterrosa family, including sisters Michelle and Ashley, have called for the firing of Tonn.
“The independent investigation established that Jarrett Tonn violated departmental policy when he shot our unarmed brother through the windshield of a moving police vehicle while he attempted to surrender,” a statement from the Monterrosa family said. “This should have resulted in Tonn’s immediate termination and we are grateful for this administrative step.
“However, the investigation also unearthed evidence of serious crimes committed by Tonn and fellow officers in an attempted cover-up of Sean Monterrosa’s murder,” the statement continued. “After two years we continue to demand that the California DOJ under the leadership of Rob Bonta take immediate action to prosecute and hold the responsible Vallejo officers for their crimes. In the wake of the badge-bending scandal, serious institutional concerns remain, including the destruction of evidence and manipulation of testimony — all of which remain unanswered by the discipline of this single bad actor.”
This termination comes despite officer Marc Fox, testifying in a Skelly hearing, recommending that Tonn’s termination be overturned. This came a few months after an investigation conducted by an outside firm found that Tonn violated policy in the shooting of Monterrosa.
The 66-page report released by the OIR group comes with a number of videos as well as the conclusion that “In sum, the fact that (Tonn) misinterpreted the actual threat level presented by Mr. Monterrosa at the time of the use of deadly force was due to the ‘plan’ he was part of, which was devoid of any efforts of de-escalation and tactically risky. As a result, any movement by Mr. Monterrosa could have been (and apparently was) interpreted as an act of aggression. Moreover, the decision to quickly shoot multiple rounds through the truck’s windshield eliminated any ability to detect threat dissipation such as Mr. Monterrosa turning away from the detectives.”
The report features Tonn’s administrative interview and his comments on the shooting.
“I’ll be the first one to critique myself or to say what I could have done better,” Tonn said. “And even in this case, like things we could have done differently, after the fact, but like knowing what we knew, and given what we were working with and, especially, you know, with the shooting part, like I do think — I do think I acted properly and did what I felt that I had to do.”
The City of Vallejo and the police department, citing Tonn’s privacy rights under the law, did not comment.
Originally published at Thomas Gase