After viewing videos of the February 9th death of 20-year-old Bay Area rapper Willie Bo, real name Willie McCoy, family members of his family are saying that McCoy wasn’t awake when officers started shooting at him. According to The Guardian, A police spokesperson told the Guardian that McCoy “was not sleeping during the entire incident”, writing in an email: “He woke up on his own and sat up, reach for the handgun when the officers told him to show them his hands, then the officers fired.” The spokesperson refused to share the video.
The family said the close-up footage of the showed a different version of what the police said happened. “They killed him in his sleep,” said David Harrison, McCoy’s cousin, who was one of three relatives to watch the body-camera footage. “He scratched his arm in his sleep. And they murdered him. There is no justification.”
Police have stated officers were responding to a call about a man “slumped over” in his car at a Taco Bell, and that when they arrived, they found him “unresponsive”. The department alleged that six officers all fired their weapons at McCoy out of “fear for their own safety” when he “quickly moved his hands downward” for a handgun in his lap.
Before they opened fire, the officers also noted to each other that the gun did not have a clip in it, which meant it could have been empty or at most had one bullet in the chamber, the family said. While Willie was still asleep, one officer said to another officer.
Police officials also told the family the shooting was justified and the officers were back on duty, according to the family. Harrison said he asked if the officers were drug-tested after the shooting, and that the officials responded that the department did not do that.
McCoy’s body appeared to have roughly 25 shots, including in his face, throat, chest, ear, and arms.
The shooting of McCoy occurred on February 9 when police were called to a Taco Bell after reports of seeing a man slumped over in a Mercedes- Benz. When the police arrived at the scene, they found Mccoy unresponsive with a handgun in his lap. It was in the middle of this that Mccoy woke up. Instead of explaining to him what was going on, six officers fired at Mccoy killing him.
