The city of Vallejo has requested a criminal investigation into the destruction of evidence pertaining to Sean Monterrosa’s fatal shooting by the Vallejo Police Department.
This after the city discovered the windshield from the vehicle involved in the June 2 shooting was destroyed. They say the vehicle was also placed back into service without consulting the police chief or city attorney’s office.
A request for a criminal investigation by the Solano County District Attorney’s Office, Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office and the FBI was already in progress, but the city requested the destruction of evidence also be included in their investigation.
The city also said an employee has been placed on administrative leave.
Sean Monterrosa’s sisters expressed fear Tuesday after finding out officials had destroyed evidence.
“Just when you think it’s just horrible it gets worse,” said sister Ashley Monterrosa.
She and sister Michelle Monterrosa are angry but not surprised that the city of Vallejo is unable to provide crucial evidence left behind in their brother'’ fatal shooting by a police officer.
"We’re more angry now it was a key evidence of Sean’s murder," said Michelle.
Last week, Vallejo police released body cam video of the shooting. It was controversial because the video that was released didn’t show what happened before the deadly shooting. The body cam video was turned on after the officer shot and killed Monterrosa.
"After watching the video last week we wanted to make sure they understood that we expected them to preserve the truck that officer Tonn was shooting out of and the drone,” said attorney Melissa Nold.
In an email Tuesday, the deputy city attorney wrote that her office checked with the police department and she was told that the truck officers were in, was repaired and put back in service. Bullet riddled windshield was replaced and taken away by the repair company.
“Now the evidence is gone forever,” said Nold. “Once they put that truck back into service we’ll never know the condition it was in that night.”
Jerry Threet is a police oversight professional and former San Francisco deputy city attorney and he’s worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“When you have a killing by a Vallejo Police Department officer you would anticipate that there might be a lawsuit ,” he said. “That should instruct them to preserve evidence and the fact that that evidence was not perceived, is really troubling.”
