Video Shows Police Killing Of Rapper Willie McCoy In Car At Taco Bell, ‘Executed By Firing Squad,’ Family Says
A shocking video posted to YouTube by a resident of Vallejo, California, appears to show that police officers in that city who shot and killed 21-year-old rapper Willie McCoy on Saturday night, February 9, fired at least a dozen shots into the sleeping man’s car not more than a split second after shouting, “put your hands up!” Police say that McCoy, who was apparently asleep in his vehicle while stopped in the drive-thru and of a Taco Bell fast-food restaurant at about 10:30 p.m., reached for a gun on his lap, according to a San Francisco Chronicle report.
But David Harrison, a cousin of McCoy who also served as McCoy’s manager in his music career, told NBC News that he was not aware of McCoy owning a firearm.
“It seems like an execution,” Harrison told NBC News on Wednesday. “It look like my baby cousin was executed by a firing squad.”
On the video, according to a Chronicle report, officers are heard commanding McCoy to put his hands up, but quickly opening fire with about a dozen rounds pumped into the silver Mercedes. The officers continue shouting commands after the gunfire ceases, instructing the mortally wounded McCoy to “let me see your hands” and repeating “put your hands up.”
View the video below, but readers should be warned, the video is disturbing and also contains profane language.
Vallejo resident Rolly Gabun, who filmed the video and posted it online, told the Chronicle that he was not surprised that the sleeping man would reach instinctively when surrounded by police.
“If the guy had a gun on his lap but woke up suddenly, of course, he would reach for it because he was probably shocked,” Gabun told the paper. “It’s brutality at its finest because even after shooting him so many times they still gave commands!”
McCoy used the name “Willie Bo” as his stage name when performing with his group, FBG. Harrison told NBC that the group had recently been on tour and had also been working on music in the recording studio recently — all while McCoy commuted between Oakland, California, and Vallejo where his family is based. He likely fell asleep in his car at the Taco Bell drive-thru due to exhaustion, Harrison said.
Family & friends mourn the loss of Willie McCoy, a rapper shot & killed by @CityofVallejo police in @tacobell drive-thru. Relatives say he was passed out & should have been given a chance to react; cops say he was reached for loaded gun that was stolen in Oregon. 4,5,6,7p @KTVU pic.twitter.com/v6olZ5Xyvt
— Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) February 11, 2019
According to a police statement cited by the Chronicle, a Taco Bell employee called police to report a sleeping man inside a vehicle in the drive-thru lane. Officers said that the man, later identified as McCoy, was unresponsive, but then woke up quickly and made a sudden movement, and “in fear for their own safety, the officers discharged their weapons at the driver.”
