WARNING: First video is extremely graphic.
Statement from the Office of the Sheriff:
The Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff is releasing series of critical incident videos depicting the officer involved shooting involving Tyrell Wilson that occurred in Danville on March 11, 2021.
The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office and the Office of the Sheriff continue to investigate this incident pursuant to the countywide law enforcement involved fatal incident protocol. The Sheriff’s Office is committed to a thorough investigation, transparency of all the facts, and is releasing these videos to provide the public with facts, evidence and information surrounding this incident.
“Any loss of life is tragic, but the community can now see the truth,” said Contra Costa Sheriff David Livingston. “Tyrell Wilson did in fact threaten the lives of passing motorists by throwing objects, possibly rocks, from the overpass down onto Highway 680. He was found with numerous rocks in his jacket pocket. He did pull a knife on Officer Hall. He did threaten Officer Hall. And he did start advancing toward Officer Hall in the middle of a major intersection. Officers are forced to make split second decisions to protect themselves and the public and that’s what happened here.”
Tough to watch but you have to. Grievous head wound – there was no coming back from that. Seen a few. I don’t know maybe back up a little? Wait for more officers? Bring up a non lethal? On the other hand I didn’t see the knife come out until it was – well – out. And this is the first confirmation that the guy was actually throwing things off the overpass. Sad and unfortunately where we are right now.
Is Facebook choking your comment stream???
We don’t know, Daniel. We confess we don’t know what Facebook is doing on a day to day basis.
This video shows the complexity of how quickly a police officer must make a life or death judgement. Why didn’t the victim comply? Why did he pull the knife out? Did the officer shoot too quickly? Could he have waited for back up? I don’t know police training but these are horrible positions they get thrust into. Thanks for sharing it’s not often you get the full picture from news outlets.
Sadly, the officer is the aggressor the whole time. Why did he approach the suspect so closely without backup? Did he ever call for backup? It looks like he never even considered de-escalating the situation. Once the suspect turned around with a knife, the officer didn’t back off at all. Pursue, pursue, pursue. And then, one walking step forward by the suspect, Bang. Shot in the face. This is the same over-aggressive stuff we saw with Arboleda where he rushes toward the car and starts shooting from the passenger side as it attempts to slowly proceed away. This has to stop.
Well he pulled out a knife and came towards the officer. The officer was the aggressor? No the guy throwing rocks was the aggressor. This type of behavior in concord just recently lead to one woman being killed by a rock and another being permanently blinded and a severe head trauma. I’m glad the police are out stopping this behavior. It’s sad the man died, but it’s also sad he made such hateful choices in his life to try and hurt random people and families on the freeway. What if he had killed someone by doing this then would you still defend his position? If a cop tells you to stop don’t pull out a deadly weapon on him and yell you want to die and then advance towards him. I don’t believe police should have to wait to be stabbed or shot before using deadly force and that seems to be how people think, no matter how flawed the logic. People called 911 to report this live threating acts of throwing large rocks at moving cars, they came to keep the rest of us safe not because they decided to harass a man because of his color.
My opinion is this will never get better until people realize what’s leading to these situations and the police being called to begin with, until there is improvement in mental health services and other services this will continue to happen. How is one suppose to deal with someone who pulls a knife on them and threatens them after throwing rocks at cars a potentially murderous act.
A lot of valid points in both of your posts. We need people laying out civilized discourse like this – and less endless campaigning for elected office that results in all decisions being based on dollars. There’s no blanket solution; so awareness and empathy need to be applied to all sides because a path to reform can be found somewhere near the center of all points of view.
Absolutely gripping and terrifying. so many impressions but don’t know where to start.
Thanks for sharing the video. It’s awful to watch, but there is an important public discussion to be had about these everyday police killings around the country and, unfortunately, right here at home.
You mean the police shootings where, since consistently tracked by WaPo starting in 2015, that about 95% of those police shootings are JUSTIFIED because the suspect was engaged in an attack on police and/or others? And even the balance of 5% are not necessarily “unjustified” since not all cases have been determined.
Here’s a great starter for your “conversation”, the things my dad told me and I’ve passed on to my kids: Stop when the cops tell you, “Yes sir”/“No Sir”, keep your hands in plain view, don’t make any sudden/stupid moves, don’t resist, and certainly do not assault them. Your odds of surviving increase exponentially.
There are so many of these people out there — so sick and often turned out by their own familiies. It’s so sad to see their families turn up for them at press conferences announcing their lawsuits against a city where they die or the officer who kills them. I hear about special teams trained to deal with them but what happens when they refuse to cooperate with them and turn around with a knife in their hand? I guess it’s easier to make a cheap piece of iron capable of killing someone than it is to make a non lethal device. Or is someone even trying?
O my god yes…… thanks for the warning on that one. My lord.
He called for cover almost right away. It takes a while for help to come — even if you’re a cop.
Just comply. It really is that simple, and too many suspects don’t want to do it. And then you have the cop haters that are more dangerous than the suspects. Absolute whack jobs.
Split second decisions by law enforcement…Brooklyn Center, Columbus and Danville…each case has its own specific set of circumstances…binary and absolute positions do not fit well in these scenarios
Agree. Nice to see reasonable and thoughtful comments here. On all sides.
Police officers shoot to stop a threat. That’s protocol. If you don’t like it, don’t throw rocks over the freeway overpass. Or commit any type a crime. Every case where a police officer shoots someone they all have one common denominator. REFUSING TO COMPLY WITH THE POLICE. We all run the risk of getting shot in that scenario, especially men.
The guy clearly had some mental issues, when asking why he didn’t just comply there’s your answer.
What I get from watching these videos is that they will be able to justify this shooting, but there are ways that this could have been handled without it leading to a shooting.
Does the concept of “just comply” work when you’re dealing with a 2-year-old?
It works just as well with somebody who’s mentally ill.
I find it interesting that people who want to justify this define one half of a step forward as “coming towards the officer”
That’s almost the same as saying that when my brother flinches he tried to hit me.
I don’t see the man coming towards the officer in an attack I see the man flinching to try to get the officer to give him space.
I don’t know why he couldn’t have just been followed until backup arrived rather than rushing up to within six feet of him.
The officers aggressive approach is what caused this to be a life and death situation.
That’s what I see. This reminds me of a kid in Florida who was followed around by a guy with a gun who then claimed he had to defend himself.
You’re legally not entitled to “get space” from an officer when you’re breaking multiple laws, are an active danger to the general public with weapons (knife & throwing rocks), & refusing to comply or have basic conversation.. I don’t see the officer being aggressive at all. I actually see this as great police work from all parties, as their priority was keeping the community safe. (The reason we have police officers..) There’s a huge difference between taking a step towards an officer & taking a step with a knife in your hand in the middle of an active intersection after aggressively throwing rocks.
What makes you think the situation would have been different if backup was present? Or that after yielding a knife the suspect would have just walked away? Realistically you can’t predict another’s actions, which is why deadly force protocol was established.
Mental illness or not, following someone with a knife & just hoping they don’t harm anyone doesn’t seem like a reasonable approach & could quickly lead to additional public danger. Perhaps it would be different if he wasn’t in the middle of a busy intersection & so many people weren’t at risk, but you can’t deny the very real threat this guy posed to everyone in the vicinity. A 2 year old (with a knife) could still cause great harm within a matter of seconds.
“A 2 year old (with a knife) could still cause great harm within a matter of seconds.”
Brilliant! I will be on alert.
Fantastc! You should probably wait patiently for backup at a distance before approaching & follow them around to politely ask if they would mind putting down the knife though. You don’t want to be “the aggressor”…
I can remember a similar situation in my city in Melbourne. A 14 year old boy had called 000 (911) giving them where he was and told them someone will die tonight. He was found by five police officers a combined total of.25 years of policing and they unloaded on him, no action was taken as they were well within their rights to shoot and shoot to kill
Thanks for writing. We’re always interested in the perspectives of readers from other countries…
We’re aware that your country has had experience with gun violence but is it a common occurrence and is an armed response the usual course of action taken by police? Where does the nation come down on these incidents if/when they occur?
In the old days a cop would have used his baton and broke his arm/wrist/hand if necessary to get him to drop the knife, now they just shoot…friends who were cops in the 80s have told me this…
I wasn’t going to say anything because I wasnt there and hindsight is 20/20 but I’ll admit I wondered why the deputy didn’t draw and use his asp baton over the gun??? Use it to keep the guy at bay and maybe land a few blows to the knife arm and hand instead of well what happened.