After 16 police-involved shootings, California city asks for DOJ help

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By Erik Ortiz

Officials in the California city where police fatally shot a young rapper inside his car in February are now asking the Department of Justice to step in and help improve relations between officers and the public.

“Having strength is knowing when to ask for help and that time is now,” Vallejo Mayor Bob Sampayan said in a statement Friday. “I welcome the wisdom and insights of the DOJ Community Relations Service to improve our police department and assist in elevating the level of community engagement with our residents.”

The call for federal intervention comes after a tense City Council meeting this week that focused on issues of policing, particularly within the city’s minority community, and a report this month by NBC News that highlighted complaints of alleged aggressive policing and the police-involved shooting of black rapper Willie McCoy as the 16th death involving Vallejo police officers since 2011.

The majority of those killed by the police in Vallejo have been black and Latino men, police records show. The Bay Area city, with a population of 122,000, remains evenly divided among white, black, Latino and Asian residents.

In San Francisco, with a population more than seven times Vallejo’s, the police department has been involved in 22 fatal shootings since 2011.

source: nbcnews.com