Willie “Bo” McCoy was only 21 years old, and now he’s dead. Did six cops need to pump bullets into him? That’s a hard question to answer, particularly since he can’t speak to what was going on in his head since he’s dead. But that doesn’t do much to provide an answer.
Officials in Vallejo told the San Francisco Chronicle that police discovered the local artist, identified as Willie McCoy or “Willie Bo,” sleeping in a drive-through lane with a handgun in his lap over the weekend.
Police were reportedly called to the restaurant late Saturday after an employee said he found a driver slumped over in his car.
Why was he “slumped over” in his car blocking the drive-through lane at the Taco Bell? Why did he have a gun in his lap? It’s hard to fault the restuarant employee for calling the cops, under the circumstances, and the fact that six cops showed for this call isn’t surprising. Guns do that to cops, bringing more than the drunken guy who won’t leave Taco Bell alert.
But the situation had enormous potential for tragedy atop the questions. How does one awaken a passed out guy with a gun on his lap without being concerned about what he might do with that gun? How does a passed out guy with a gun on his lap awaken without presenting a threat to the cops?
Officials said they told McCoy to keep his hands visible, but when he allegedly reached for his weapon, they discharged their weapons “in fear for their own safety.”
McCoy died at the scene.
It seems perfectly reasonable that McCoy was startled by the cops when they roused him. Who wouldn’t be? It seems similarly reasonable that he would reach for the heavy thing on his lap, whether he remembered it was a gun or just to figure out what it was if he didn’t. Bear in mind, the guy was passed out in the drive-through lane. One doesn’t pass out in the drive-through lane under ordinary circumstances. Something was amiss, and then there was the gun in his lap.
As for the cops, they were looking at a guy with a gun. This wasn’t the inchoate threat scenario, where he reached for his wallet, but he reached for the gun in his lap. Is it possible that this never happened, that either there was no gun or he didn’t reach for it? Of course, but absent video, we’ll never know. Then again, it’s also possible it did happen.
Was there a protocol for this? Was there a way the police officers would have diffused this situation without shooting, without killing, 21-year-old Willie “Bo” McCoy? No doubt people will contrive an approach that would have allowed this young man to survive the encounter. Had they simply not fired, and he simply taken the gun in his lap and handed it over to the officers, no one would have died that day. But as much as one can harshly criticize the scared cop, was it reasonable to think that they should have waited to see what McCoy, under these circumstances, was about to do with that gun?
Some apparently think so.
At least six shots were fired for the “crime” of sleeping in his car while Black. Why were six police officers necessary to deal with this? In what world was a man they startled awake a threat? I stand with Willie McCoy’s family in demanding justice for this senseless brutality.
Had McCoy died from one shot from one officer, would that have been acceptable? To claim he was killed for “the ‘crime’ of sleeping in his car while Black” is nonsensical. And in what world does being passed out in the drive-through lane at a Taco Bell with a gun in one’s lap become a totally ordinary thing to do that wouldn’t present a problem?
Perhaps there will be video showing that Willie McCoy didn’t reach for the gun. Perhaps there is a protocol for dealing with this scenario that wasn’t followed and would have allowed everyone to go home for dinner. But when the activist spin is so absurdly contrary to facts and reality, reducing every interaction to mindless cries of racism, it not only can’t be taken seriously, but reduces real brutality such as the murders of Tamir Rice and Eric Garner, Philando Castille and Walter Scott, to jokes.
Not every killing is a bad shoot. Not every black guy who dies at the hand of the cops is a victim of senseless brutality. And not every twit recounting a killing can be taken seriously. Stoking unwarranted outrage diminishes the serious efforts to stop “senseless brutality,” no matter how good it feels to proclaim on social meda that you “demand justice.”
Update: There is now video of the killing.
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To an observer outside the car, reaching for a gun would look identical to reaching for the door handle or trying to open the window.
If the cops startled him awake, he was a dead man no matter what.
The scenario doesn’t seem to lend itself to any other outcome, but does that make the cops at fault here?
Whether the cops were at fault will only be known after seeing the vids. Were they screaming at a just-awakened man or standing back and waiting?
A story that will likely have many shades of gray, as they often do.
I certainly wouldn’t fault twitchy cops, conditioned from years upon years by the “Reasonably Scared Cop” Rule to fire as soon as anyone reaches for a firearm. It certainly would be my instinctive reaction.
But while I wouldn’t call this a bad shoot, I certainly would call it a premature shoot. Maybe Mr. McCoy knew exactly what was in his lap, but he certainly didn’t know what was jolting him from his slumber. It is perfectly reasonable that someone started awake would reach for a weapon, especially if they are asleep in their car; is it a cop telling you to wake up, or someone with malice and evil intent?
When cops shoot before they know there’s an actual gun at hand, it’s one thing. When they know there’s a gun, and it’s out and ready to be fired, what do they do?
Bear in mind, they didn’t create the scenario they found, but they’re left to deal with it.
But police deal with people they know to be armed, and to have criminal intent, all the time – for instance, during bank robberies. The way they handle it is to take cover and attempt to communicate with the suspect, to convince them to surrender peacefully.
There’s a bit of a difference between a bank robbery and this scenario that complicate your simple solution. Does that make you wrong? I don’t know.
The lack of ready hostages?
The fact that many more people pass out in their vehicles than rob banks?
The presumption that bank robbers have situational awareness and are hopped up on adrenalin?
But yeah, to your point, it should be obvious to all that the felony enhancement for sleeping with a gun in public will be immediate execution.
Oh Patrick. This makes me so very sad.
Me too. I shouldn’t internet on my anniversary.
Sorry, pal.
Thanks.
When I was a park ranger (I know there is a standing prohibition against slightly on topic anecdotes, but it think it’s relevant). I was walking to lunch through the parking lot and I saw a guy passed out in a station wagon with a MAC10 in his hand and the window down. I could smell the booze as he slumbered. I went and got the LEO rangers. One LEO ranger, an Iraq veteran, went in and pulled this guy out the car via the window (old station wagon with huge windows) by the neck and arrested him. In my 21 year old way I asked the LEO’s why they didn’t surround this guy and tear gas his ass. The LEO ranger said to me, “We could have done that, but the minute he wakes up and is startled we are going to have to shoot and kill him. That’s more of an execution than police work. Do you want unnecessary blood on your hands”? Effectively put in my place….I walked away.
If we only had more LEO’s like that guy.
He had two advantages. First, he knew it was booze. Second, the window was open. And then there’s the fact that he pulled it off, as a tiny shift in facts and it could have gone south fast.
Since we’re already down the anecdote rabbit trail, I will give some background to my previous visceral reaction. They obviously viewed this guy as a problem rather than someone who needed help. When the cops don’t do this, they can be gentle and patient. I remember a few years ago when we had a suicide jumper on an overpass. That probably inconvenienced hundreds of thousands for a few hours.
Here, we have a guy inconveniencing a single restaurant, apparently in a stable situation — stable enough, at least, for six cops to be in position in close proximity. They’re smart enough to know they might startle him — arguably over- prepared for that by five bullets — but too dumb to think outside the box enough to go and call in a bomb- disposal robot or something?
The solutions that spring to mind for “how do we neutralize this threat?” are completely different than the ones for “How do we help this guy without endangering anybody else?”
We’ll never know the entire story, but it sure looks like the first question is the one that was asked. How do we change the default question?
Was he a guy who needed help or a guy on drugs who was about to commit an armed robbery at Taco Bell and passed out before he shot the cashier? You’ve assumed an awful lot here, to your convenience, which can’t be so blithely assumed by the cops who responded to the call.
Yeah! And why should these cops be inconvenienced by the time it would take to better understand the facts before they forced their own hand to gunplay? Do you have any idea how important it is for people to get their tacos?!?
How would they “get the facts”? Knock on the window, ask nicely in dulcet tones whether he’s going to kill someone with the gun in his lap or needs a cup of coffee?
Sorry, I’m still smarting from my spanking for theory-crafting earlier this week.
You, me, and most people reading this know damn well we could cite examples where cops managed to resolve similar scenarios without another dead civilian. We could also spend the day dreaming up our own incredibly practical ways to make time and space for this situation to resolve without any gunplay. No doubt some of us would have the experience and training to back up our theories.
What we can’t do is put the bullet back in the gun for William McCoy and since this post is about cynically second guessing the motives of people critical of the cops in this death, it would be off-topic anyways.
That’s not what this post is about, Jake. It’s about how difficult factual scenarios are reduced to inane characterizations to feed the progressive outrage machine. I’m not defending the cops here. But I’m not condemning them either. What I am condemning is the lie about this killing that ignores is complexities.
Lulz. The progressive outrage machine? Sorry you were distracted from your mission to make sure we’re all outraged about college campuses.
I’m doing this for you because you matter to me.
Someone mentioned gunplay..
Oh bullshit. This was an example of someone with the experience and wherewithal to decelerate the situation. Really, we need to behave as if things can go south?
Once the cops were there and once he went for his gun, he was going to get shot. But that is because the cops chose to push a confrontation.
I’m not talking about some sort of Navy-Seal movie-magic of disarming him. I’m just talking about the reality: sleep is a temporary condition. Surely it would be possible to keep a cordon around the car and wake the dude up from a distance, so he has an opportunity to realize he is surrounded and holding a gun, and avoid getting killed? Or simply wait for him to wake up?
I know, I know; that would take literally HOURS and everyone would lose some sleep, so the cops would never consider it…
That was my solution as well. IMO, it would have happened if the police department’s goal was to prevent injury to everyone. Unfortunately, civilian are less considered less important than police officers.
The police on the scene did very little wrong. The people who made the decision to set up a scenario where McCoy was likely to die are responsible for his death – not legally but morally.
So Taco Bell doesn’t get to use its drive-thru until this guy comes to? It has to deal with someone armed with unknowable intentions with a firearm right by its store and hope he’s not planning on a violent act when they open?
Sorry, that isn’t how the world works. The business has an absolute right to not have passed-out people with a gun blocking their drive-thru, and they aren’t required to be held hostage while the dude takes his napnap.
Yes.
The cost of Taco Bell losing its business for a couple of hours is not worth killing someone.
I might also point out that the “wake him up” strategy isn’t going to take THAT long. Just don’t shoot him without giving him a fair chance to not get shot.
Who pays for the police to wait around? How often does this sort of situation become fatal? Who compensates the employees who are forced off work? Who compensates the restaurant for lost business?
“Simply” waiting for several hours with an armed police presence isn’t actually that simple when it’s on someone else’s property.
Well geez, Scott. Based on the facts reported in the Vallejo, handling this any differently would have obviously taken a lot of time. What’s the point of getting home for dinner if the food’s cold and the Mrs is already asleep?
When in doubt, be Leeroy Jenkins.
Under
Yesterday evening I saw the version of this MSN had stuck on their front page, calling this “an execution” with a headline screaming the police had shot a man “sleeping in a car.” Reading down the actual article of course I soon saw he wasn’t sleeping when they fired, and that he unaccountably had, on his lap, a stolen .40 semi-auto with fully-loaded extender mag, for which the police thought he was reaching when they fired. This after he had been “asleep” over the wheel in a Taco Bell drive-through with his car running and still in “drive” gear.
I don’t know what this idiot was doing with a fully-loaded, stolen .40 in his lap at the Taco Bell drive through, but it certainly seems sketchy. The passing out so soundly that he was unresponsive, with his car still in drive, also suggests some altered-state issues. Looking at his whole series of strange and stupid behavior, I would honestly have been surprised if this turned out any other way. It is too bad this guy got himself killed, but I don’t see this as a case where the cops are likely to have any criminal or civil exposure. Also, it is yet another instance of reporters trying to parlay every story into an “outrage,” and becoming thereby the little media jerks who cried “wolf.”
“I don’t know what this idiot was doing with a fully-loaded, stolen .40 in his lap at the Taco Bell drive through”
How do you know this man’s intelligence? Furthermore, how did the police know, upon approaching the car, that this man wasn’t justifiably in possession of a legal firearm?
“The passing out so soundly that he was unresponsive, with his car still in drive, also suggests some altered-state issues.”
This is a reasonable assumption, as people don’t normally pass out while waiting to purchase tacos. However, upon approaching the vehicle, how did the police know his altered state was not caused by narcolepsy? Or a problem with blood pressure medication? Or choking on a taco when his gun fell out of his holster?
“Looking at his whole series of strange and stupid behavior, I would honestly have been surprised if this turned out any other way.”
What if this man was an off-duty police officer? What if right before he passed out at the wheel from a case of the nerves he was waiting in line for tacos at the drive-thru when someone tried to carjack him but ran after he brandished his sidearm? How could his executors know any of this while shrieking “SHOW ME YOUR HANDS” to a dead man?
(Surprise! A third party cell phone video of the shooting has already surfaced. No doubt the police union will get the shooters off without any jail time but that’s not going to with the public’s perception of the boys in blue, be they attorneys, activists, or just plain-old voters.)
Jake, your comment is but an example of how the comments went seriously astray. Everything you say is either plainly wrong, like this might have been a legal carry, or an outlier when it comes to probability. The event was reported as an execution, but the reports didn’t recognize all that goes into pulling the trigger. That’s the point.
But it’s okay–you just followed other dopiness.
I am curious how he passed out, or fell asleep, or whatever, with the car still in drive and still managed to keep enough pressure on the brake to keep the car from rolling forward.
The brakes in a Benz require much less weight than a sleeping man’s leg to operate.
Although none of this directly affects the circumstances at the Taco Bell, Willie James McCoy, apparently the same man, was arrested in April (in San Francisco) for Armed Kidnapping and Human Trafficking. He allegedly kidnapped a 19 year female at gunpoint, driving his same silver Mercedes. He was also arrested in Oakland, CA after an search warrant. The charges were “firearms offenses”, which would seem to imply Mr McCoy was a convicted felon or otherwise was not able to lawfully possess a firearm. His bond on the kidnaping was over $1,000,000. There are no follow-up stories explaining his freedom on the night he was shot. However, the totality of the known (to us) prior arrests suggest that McCoy was certainly a potential threat. And as for suggestions here that Taco Bell’s drive through be shut while police tried to find a way to gently wake up the armed felon without making him fearful, suppose he did wake up, and just drove off, and subsequently killed some innocent person in an accident. The police don’t get to assume people with guns are harmless, and should not assume allowing them the freedom to do even more stupid things – like drive while under the influence – will be rewarded with pleasant outcomes. For all we know, cops had already run the license plate and knew they were dealing with a potentially dangerous guy. When you have a felony past, you probably shouldn’t carry a stolen firearm unlawfully, and then pass out behind the wheel of your car in a very public place, and then do anything but what you are told to do while a number of nervous cops point guns at you. Too bad anyone had to die, but at least no kidnapped 19 year old, no cops with a family, no innocent motorist got killed because a guy with issue obeying the laws in effect, committed suicide. By the way, very few police shooting are without fault. They are not required to be perfect, only justifiable.
It would be one thing to add that McCoy had a sheet, which the cops may have known, to the mix, but what you’ve done here is needlessly smear a dead kid with unproven allegations suggesting that regardless of anything else, the loss of his life is no big deal because he was a worthless human being. What a monumentally scummy thing to do, and invariably typical of cop trolls.
The video is partially helpful, in that there are no cops screaming or sirens wailing before the shooting. It seems safe to cross off the idea of being startled awake as part of the evidentiary fact pattern.
Or nothing of the sort. If you ever go near 100 Centre Street, Ima beat you.
I did not think it was helpful at all as to what precipitated the shooting. It was a little bizarre in the sense that all the “let me see your hands” shouting seemed to have come AFTER the fusillade of gunfire.