VALLEJO, Calif. (KGO) — For the first time since his resignation in 2022, we’re hearing from former Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams about why he left the department.
Williams’ deposition is part of a civil case involving Willie McCoy’s niece. McCoy was shot and killed by Vallejo police in 2019 at a Taco Bell drive-thru.
According to a federal civil rights lawsuit that McCoy’s niece filed, she says she was pulled over by two of the officers who shot at him a couple of months later. She claims she was thrown on the ground, tased and arrested. Her attorney says she was never charged with a crime.
In 2022, approximately three months after the Vallejo Police Department Police Officers Association issued a vote of no confidence in then VPD Chief Shawn Williams, he resigned.
In a deposition with civil rights attorney Melissa Nold, Williams testified his resignation was a result of “racial animus” and “retaliatory things that were happening that just made it unbearable or impossible” for him “to perform” his “duties in a safe environment.”
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Williams also detailed threats he says he received in the mail.
Williams was the first African American Police Chief at Vallejo Police Department.
Nold deposed him as part of Deyana Jenkins’ — Willie McCoy’s niece — civil lawsuit.
In 2019, Vallejo police shot McCoy more than 50 times at a Taco Bell drive-thru.
A couple of months later, Jenkins says two of the officers who shot her uncle stopped her, dragged her out of a car, threw her on the ground, tased and arrested her.
RELATED: Vallejo POA votes no confidence in Police Chief Shawny Williams as tensions grow
“From what we can tell, it was racial profiling. The officers were very aggressive,” Nold said.
At the time, Vallejo police said she was combative and resisting arrest.
Nold said she deposed Williams because he said he was threatened and forced out of the department for his reform efforts and for disciplining officers, including one of the officers in Jenkins’ case.
“He was trying to get people terminated, and so he was doing a lot of things that were new and different for the city of Vallejo, and that seemed to be the reason why they forced him out,” Nold said.
The I-Team reached out to the Vallejo Police Department for comment. Reporter Melanie Woodrow has not yet heard back.
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Mike Rains represented the Vallejo Police Officers Association in 2022 when the POA issued its vote of no confidence in Williams. He has a different take on the resignation.
“Shawny Williams was, without a doubt, the worst police chief I have dealt with in 45 years. The most incompetent, the poorest communicator with his immediate administrative staff and with the entire department,” Rains said. “He was the victim of animus, but it wasn’t racially motivated. It was because he was incompetent.”
In an emailed statement, Williams’ attorney Jamon Hicks writes: “Through his years dedicated to public service, Chief Williams made transparency a top priority. Even in his retirement, Chief Williams maintains his core values of honesty, transparency and dedication to the communities he serves.”
A joint dispute letter filed by Nold on behalf of Jenkins says that Williams was forced out of his job as Chief because he feared for his safety, after harassment, racism, threats, retaliation and intimidation that resulted in three formal complaints the city failed to investigate or resolve.
VIDEO: Vallejo police release body cam footage from deadly shooting in Taco Bell drive-thru
The letter also states that during the deposition in question, Williams accused Vallejo Assistant City Attorney Katelyn Knight of trying to threaten and intimidate him in relationship to the deposition. Citing attorney-client privilege, Knight directed him not to answer Nold’s questions about how.
In an emailed statement to the I-Team, Knight denies any intimidation, and writes in part: “There was no legally inappropriate conduct by counsel for the City.”
She also stated that she is prohibited from discussing the contents of the communications at issue due to attorney-client privilege.
During his deposition, Williams also stated that he had concerns about the city failing to keep him safe or investigate. Attorney Melissa Nold is seeking to re-depose Williams specifically to ask what Vallejo Assistant City Attorney Knight said or did that he felt was a threat or intimidating.
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