Daly City Names Officers Involved In Fatal Police Shooting

DALY CITY, CA — Daly City police released the names of four officers who were involved in the fatal shooting of a Black man earlier this month.

The four officers were Lt. Michael Brennan and officers Rosa Brenes, Nicholas McCarthy and Cameron Newton, according to a news release. The department released the names Thursday after a lengthy council meeting Monday in which advocates demanded names of the officers, among other changes.

The April 7 shooting, which killed 44-year-old San Francisco resident Roger Allen, was the result of a struggle over what turned out to be a replica firearm, according to San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe.

There was no video of the incident, and Daly City officers are not currently equipped with body cameras. According to the San Francisco Examiner, the Daly City Police Department is one of the last in San Mateo County to roll out the cameras.

Wagstaffe said in a statement a week after the shooting that an officer had stopped to speak with the driver of a truck that had a flat tire, with three people in inside at the 700 block of Niantic Avenue.

A second and a third officer arrived and stood on the passenger side of the truck as the first officer talked to the driver, who was cooperative, Wagstaffe said.

The front passenger door was open and the officers "saw what appeared to be a Glock firearm (handgun) on the lap of passenger Roger Allen," according to the account. "The officers yelled out there was a gun and Mr. Allen picked the gun up and held it in his hand."

One of the officers leaned in and grabbed Allen's hand in an effort to prevent the gun from being fired and a struggle ensued, with the weapon at one point directed at the officer and driver standing on the other side of the truck, then at the officer struggling with Allen, Wagstaffe said.

When the second officer on the passenger side "saw the gun pointed at the face of the officer struggling with Mr. Allen, he reported he feared that his fellow officer was going to be shot in the face," Wagstaffe said. "He fired his service handgun at Mr. Allen twice, with one shot striking Mr. Allen in the chest and the other shot missing and lodging inside the vehicle."

Dozens marched in Daly City earlier this month to demand transparency over the shooting, which is being investigated by the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office. An impartial outside investigator will be assigned to conduct an administrative investigation into the incident, according to the Daly City news release.

“The lack of transparency and urgency by the Daly City City Council is extremely disturbing,” Rev. Lorrie Owens, president of the San Mateo branch of the NAACP, said at Monday’s council meeting, according to the Examiner.

In an April 19 editorial, the San Francisco Chronicle raised questions about the need for four officers to respond to a flat tire, and why Allen would wrestle for control of a fake gun with a police officer.

"The full answers to those questions don’t appear to be forthcoming any time soon, partly because Daly City police officers don’t wear body cameras," the Chronicle's editorial board wrote.

Bay City News contributed to this report.