Written by @kristenshylin_
According to Vice, the San Leandro police officer who fatally shot a Black man holding a baseball bat inside a Walmart in California has been charged with voluntary manslaughter.
A statement from Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley stated that authorities charged Jason Fletcher for the April 18 incident, which resulted in the death of 33-year-old Steven Taylor.
Taylor’s family attorney Lee Merritt told The Guardian that Taylor had schizophrenia and a bipolar disorder. Merritt added that he was in the midst of a mental break during the time of the incident.
Fletcher and his partner responded to a call about an alleged theft and potential robbery at the grocery store. O’Malley said Taylor had been accused of attempting to leave the store with the bat and a tent without paying for it.
Things took a dark turn when Taylor refused to drop the bat once the two officers arrived.
The altercation, which was partially captured by a witness on a cell-phone video, showed Fletcher tasing and fatally shooting Taylor in the chest within 40 seconds of entering the Walmart.
As Taylor was bleeding out in the middle of the Walmart floor, Fletcher insisted that he was “fighting,” body camera footage revealed.
”Stop fighting, man,” Fletcher said. “Just give me your hand.”
Although Taylor was clearly not in the condition to “resist” arrest as he laid face down on the floor, the second officer continued tasing him. Fletcher then cut the man’s backpack off to handcuff him.
Bystanders were outraged and horrified by what they just saw.
”Don’t show him no more!” one of the shoppers yelled at the officers.
After five months of “an extensive investigation” and “a deep and thorough analysis of the facts and current law,” O’Malley said legal action was taken against the officer who fatally shot Taylor.
Rober Chenault, an inspector for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, said Taylor “posed no threat of imminent deadly force or serious bodily injury to defendant Fletcher or anyone else in the store” when he was killed.
In a probable cause document released Wednesday, Chenault wrote that the officer’s use of deadly force was “unreasonable due to his failure to attempt other de-escalation options.”
According to the East Bay Times, Fletcher has been with the San Leandro department for 14 years. He is also the first officer in the county to face criminal charges for a fatal officer-involved shooting in more than a decade, the outlet reported.
Fletcher is scheduled to be arraigned on September 15.
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