Velvet Police Shooting One Year Later: Where Do Things Stand in Investigation, and What Has Happened Since?

One year ago today, a 20-year-old Oakland man was killed after Martinez police officers opened fire at the Velvet Cannabis dispensary while responding to a burglary call; investigations continue

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the fatal officer-involved shooting by Martinez police at the Velvet Cannabis dispensary on Sunrise Drive while responding to a middle-of-the-night burglary call. Tahmon Wilson, 20, of Oakland died from injuries suffered in the encounter as he fled the scene in a car.

Within days of Wilson’s death, the California Department of Justice launched an independent investigation, in compliance with recently adopted state legislation governing how officer-involved shootings are handled. A separate administrative investigation was also initiated by Martinez police into the officers’ actions and how they complied with department policies and procedures.

A year later, no information has been released publicly about either investigation, and it seems unlikely that any will be in the immediate future as state investigators continue to work through a long backlog of officer-involved shooting cases throughout California. Assembly Bill 1506 requires the Department of Justice, overseen by state Attorney General Rob Bonta, “to investigate all incidents of an officer-involved shooting resulting in the death of an unarmed civilian in the state. The California Department of Justice will investigate and review for potential criminal liability all such incidents.”

The Department of Justice website listing cases currently under investigation includes officer-involved shootings dating to Feb. 17, 2022, a full year and a half before the Velvet incident.

Martinez police Chief Andrew White, responding to a request for information I emailed him last week on the status of the investigations into the Velvet fatality, said that based on the DOJ’s current timeline for resolving cases, he expects the Velvet investigation to be completed approximately two years from the date of the incident, which means it could be another year before the public learns whether the officers’ actions were deemed justified in the eyes of the state.

“They have told us they are working to complete the cases more quickly …” White said in an email reply to my questions.

White said two of the four officers involved in incident “were separated from employment with the city”; the other two remain employed with the department and are no longer on administrative leave.

White also said the administrative review of the officers’ actions and the department’s policies regarding use of force is ongoing. He wrote in the email:

The Department of Justice's Police Practices Division is actively working on this in conjunction with the legal review of the shooting. We are actively engaging with them on this process and providing all needed documentation. This will be released as part of DOJ’s overall report on the shooting. They have been pretty active with us the past month or so.

On the question of department policy regarding the conditions under which officers are allowed to shoot at moving vehicles, White shared this with me from Martinez PD’s Use of Force Policy:

300.4.1 SHOOTING AT OR FROM MOVING VEHICLES

Shots fired at or from a moving vehicle are rarely effective and may involve additional considerations and risks. When feasible, officers should take reasonable steps to move out of the path of an approaching vehicle instead of discharging their firearm at the vehicle or any of its occupants. An officer should only discharge a firearm at a moving vehicle or its occupants when the officer reasonably believes there are no other reasonable means available to avert the imminent threat of the vehicle, or if deadly force other than the vehicle is directed at the officer or others (Government Code § 7286(b)). Officers should not shoot at any part of a vehicle in an attempt to disable the vehicle.

A 2016 report from the Police Executive Research Forum found that a number of police agencies throughout the country had implemented policies prohibiting officers from shooting at moving vehicles, unless a person in the vehicle is using or threatening deadly force by means other than the vehicle itself. According to the report, New York City implemented such a policy in 1972, and police shooting incidents plummeted in the years that followed.

Video footage of the Velvet shooting released by Martinez last September showed officers next to the driver’s side of the vehicle occupied by Wilson with their guns pointed at it, before the car briefly backs up in an apparent attempt to get around a police car, then speeds off. The Infiniti appears to scrape an officer’s outstretched hand or gun as it speeds away. Shots are fired from the rear (in one video frame, two officers appear to be firing the same gun), and the Infiniti crashes into a fire hydrant. In audio of police radio traffic that was also released at the time, an officer can be heard saying, “seven to eight shots fired, 245 attempt on an officer.”

Police body cam footage from last year’s fatal encounter at Velvet Cannabis.

In his email last week, White noted that the department “recently made a significant investment in a virtual reality simulator to train officers in various scenarios, to include usage of firearms. …. We have been making a big push in training, and this allows us to really take things to the next level.”

Local media reported last year that Wilson’s family was filing a civil rights lawsuit against the city over the fatal shooting; I emailed the the attorney representing the family last week seeking an update but have not heard back as of this writing.

No incidents at dispensaries since last August

A key revelation in the immediate aftermath of the Velvet shooting last year, as reported in this newsletter, was that there were no security guards on site when the burglary attempt occurred, a clear violation of the city’s Cannabis Ordinance at the time that required 24/7 on-site security. For reasons that remain unknown, the city’s police command staff at the time had granted Velvet and the city’s other dispensary, Embarc on Alhambra Avenue, a waiver from staffing their businesses with security guards after business hours — something that the police officials had no authority to do based on the ordinance that had been approved by the City Council.

When this issue came to light following the Velvet shooting, White and City Manager Michael Chandler met with the dispensary owners and required them to begin guarding their dispensaries around the clock with on-site security officers, as the ordinance required. During an update of the ordinance earlier this year, the City Council amended the security guard provision to require a minimum of roving security patrols at the dispensaries after hours while giving the chief the discretion to continue to require 24/7 on-site guards if he deems it appropriate (because the dispensaries’ security plans are confidential, it is unclear what is currently being required at Velvet and Embarc in terms of after-hours security).

Shortly after the Velvet shooting, White shared with me a spreadsheet compiled at my request showing burglary- and robbery-related incidents at Velvet and Embarc since 2020. Before Aug. 18, 2023, there had been 10 burglary-related calls to Velvet’s address and five robbery- or burglary-incidents at Embarc, including one daylight robbery at gunpoint of a delivery vehicle when security personnel were present at the dispensary, as is required during business hours.

White said last week that in the year since the Velvet shooting, there have been no burglary- or robbery-related incidents at either dispensary.

Craig’s take: The fact that no incidents similar to the Velvet burglary attempt that led to Tahmon Wilson’s death have occurred in the year since is compelling evidence in my mind that the presence of security guards around the clock is a strong deterrent to these types of criminal acts. It also leads me to believe that this tragedy likely could have been prevented had Velvet provided the level of security required in the city’s ordinance at the time, though that question should not distract from the critically important investigation into how officers responded to this call and their decision to open fire. The Police Department leadership that permitted the dispensaries to violate the city’s own ordinance is no longer in charge, and the question of why this was allowed to happen, and whether those in charge and dispensary officials knew they were violating city law, has never been publicly explained. During City Council meetings involving the updating of the Cannabis Ordinance earlier this year, officials at Embarc, along with their supporters, argued strenuously against the requiring of 24/7 on-site security guards, despite the fact that Embarc included that provision in its own proposal in 2020 for a permit to open the dispensary that was discussed publicly at City Council meetings. This year, Embarc argued that such a requirement posed safety risks to the security guards and left them as “sitting ducks.” However, the fact that these “sitting ducks” have been guarding the dispensaries around the clock for much or all of the past year without incident contradicts that argument. (I do not know whether the police chief allowed them to replace overnight guards with “roving patrols” following the update to the ordinance in March.) To the contrary, the fact that no incidents have occurred for a year at either dispensary, while they were occurring with some frequency when the dispensaries were left unguarded overnight, suggests to me that 24/7 on-site security (along with other “hardening” efforts) has enhanced public safety for all involved and that the City Council was correct to require guards around the clock when it first adopted the ordinance. Logic dictates that potential burglars are much less likely to target any business if they know that people are present at all hours; the video footage of the suspects in the minutes leading up to the Velvet shooting suggests to me that they believed the dispensary was unoccupied and that they were alone at the scene. If the requirement had been adhered to by the city and dispensaries, it is unlikely, in my opinion, that the suspects would have attempted to burglarize Velvet in the early morning hours last Aug. 18. I believe the City Council erred in watering down the on-site security requirement earlier this year under pressure from a dispensary that misled the public in its own application to open its business. However, because the city’s police chief has the final authority to set the stricter requirement if he deems it appropriate, I’m hopeful that 24/7 on-site security will remain the standard at the city’s two dispensaries as long as they remain in operation.

More election news

As noted previously, November will be a sparse election for Martinez voters in terms of local races, with only one contested City Council seat and one contested Martinez Unified School District Board seat.

One additional race that voters will decide is the seat representing Martinez on the Contra Costa County Board of Education. The candidates who qualified to run for that seat are current Martinez Unified board member Yazmin Llamas and former MUSD and Contra Costa Community College District board member Vicki Gordon. If Llamas wins the seat, it will create a vacancy on the MUSD board for the final two years of her term, which the board would likely fill through an appointment rather than calling a special election.

The current holder of the county Board of Education seat, Anamarie Avila Farias, is running for a state Assembly seat that she is highly favored to win after emerging as the lone Democratic Party candidate from the March primary.

West Nile in Martinez

The Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector Control District reported last week that mosquitos trapped in Martinez tested positive for West Nile virus.

In a news release by the vector control district, Scientific Program Director Steve Schutz said:

Mosquitoes known to transmit West Nile virus sometimes lay eggs in backyard water sources, and the adults that emerge from those sources can affect an area of up to 15 miles, so, it is very important for Contra Costa County residents to dump out any containers holding standing water on their property, use an insect repellent if they are outdoors in the evening or early morning, and report mosquito issues to the district, because it only takes one bite from an infected mosquito to transmit West Nile virus to a person.

To reduce the risk of mosquito bites, the district recommends residents use an EPA-registered insect repellent with one of the following active ingredients:

• DEET

• Picaridin

• The repellent version of Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus

• IR3535

Feedback sought on Briones Pilot Project

The East Bay Regional Park District is seeking feedback from trail users who have hiked or ridden on the trails in the Briones Pilot Project zone since the project launched in April 2023. The project has set some specific rules and restrictions on trail use in the zone related to hiking, biking and equestrian use. More information about the project in a the northeast corner of the park, as well as how to provide feedback, can be found at the following link: https://www.ebparks.org/parks/briones/briones-pilot-project

According to a district news release:

Public input will help planners make project decisions and consider future plans, both for this project and districtwide.

Hidden Lakes pond update

The city reported on Aug. 9 that the condition of Hidden Lakes pond was improving following a fish kill last month that resulted from an algae overgrowth problem. The dissolved oxygen level in the pond had improved considerably from July 31, when it measured nearly zero. The city also reported that a new aeration system installed Aug. 6 was “functioning as expected.”

The city previously reported that a fish biologist from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife had inspected the pond in late July and would complete and release a report at a later date.

Updates on the pond situation can be found at the following link: https://www.cityofmartinez.org/Home/Components/News/News/274/15

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