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 started 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 “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 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.”
Spin Shots curated from Simple Justice
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