Introduction
Families of those shot by San Jose Police spoke about their experiences and activism after loved ones were left critically injured or dead when officers implemented deadly force.
Deadly force is used for the apprehension of suspects believed by officers to have committed a felony with deadly force or threat, or is suspected of creating potential serious injury or death if not apprehended immediately, according to the SJPD Officer Involved Shootings-FAQ webpage.
Phillip Watkins was shot in 2015 after SJPD officers responded to his mental health crisis.
Demetrius Stanley was fatally shot by undercover SJPD officers in 2021.
On March 27, Contra Costa College student K’aun Green was shot by SJPD less than a block from campus.
Their families say they have been deeply affected by police violence.
Sharon Watkins, Watkins’ mother and San Jose State lead software support specialist, said after her son’s death she found community among other families that have lost loved ones to police brutality.
“I was one of those people that when you see it on the news before it happened to Phil, I would think it was just a few people,” Watkins said. “Then it happened to me.”
K’aun Green
K’aun Green, 20, was shot four times by San Jose Police on March 27 at La Victoria Taqueria, about a block away from San Jose State University, according to a March 31, NBC News article.
Green, who was later hospitalized after the incident, was allegedly disarming a gunman when a fight broke out in the restaurant, his attorney Adanta Pointer said.
Pointer said police asked his client to ‘drop the gun’ without giving Green “a second” to understand the instructions or drop the gun, according to the same article.
San Jose Police Chief Anthony Mata said in a March 29 press conference that Green “refused orders to drop the handgun” and it was “impossible” for officers to know Green’s role in the restaurant fight during the incident.
Green spoke publicly for the first time on April 7 since he was shot in a Zoom press conference.
“It hurt to be treated like a criminal when all you wanted to do was save you and your friends' life," Green said.
Since the incident several protests have occurred in San Jose in support of Green, including one held on April 1, where advocates called for “officer accountability,” according to past Spartan Daily reporting.
Nancy Robles, member of Party for Socialism and Liberation, a Bay Area advocacy group, helped organize the April 1 protest with several other community organizers.
“What needs to happen is accountability,” she said. “Thankfully, [Green is] okay - recovering, but that really isn't enough.”
Robles said she believes the police officers involved should be fired.
Green, his family, and legal team filed a federal lawsuit on April 6 against the City of San Jose alleging that police used excessive force and violated his civil rights.
Additional footage of the incident was revealed on Tuesday, with police body-camera and security footage revealing “a new level of detail” of the incident, which shows a man appearing to start a fight with Green, according to a Tuesday Mercury News article.
After Green punches the man, a 30 year old man police identified as Brian Carter raises a handgun and Green helps his friend take possession of the handgun, according to the same article.
The police compilation released on Tuesday also identified the officer who shot Green as Mark McNamara, a four-year SJPD member.
The newly released footage shows Green walking backward and McNamara yelling for Green to drop the gun.
A combination of body camera and surveillance footage show Green turned slightly and as he recognized the officers he appeared to show hands and McNamara fired four shots, according to the same Mercury News article.
Robles said her organization and several others are calling for “community oversight of police.”
“There also needs to be more transparency between the police department and the community as to how and why [officer-involved shootings] things happen.”
Demetrius Stanley
Demetrius Stanley, 31, was shot and killed on May 31, 2021 after being confronted by plainclothes undercover police officers near his home, according to a June 2, 2021 San Francisco Chronicle article.
San Jose Police Chief Anthony Mata said in a June 2, 2021 press conference that Stanley was being surveilled in connection with an armed robbery that occurred in March 2021.
Mata said one officer was in an unmarked car and another was on foot when Stanley came out of his home with a gun and began to move toward officers.
He said the officer heard the sound of a gun being racked and ran away to “avoid confrontation.”
Surveillance video of the incident showed that eventually Stanley tucked the handgun away, but as he was walking toward his home he stopped at the unmarked vehicle.
Mata said Stanley opened the officer’s door pointing a gun and “fearing for his life” the officer shot Stanley.
Kiran Lake, community advocate and niece of Demetrius Stanley, said she remembers hearing the shots on the night of the incident. Lake said she was at her partner’s home a few minutes away from Stanley.
“I heard three shots - I heard a rapid like one two and then there's a space and then there's a third and my heart dropped,” she said in a phone interview. “Not because I knew what happened, but it felt so close to home - it was like when you get that feeling like something's wrong.”
Many of Stanley’s family members and supporting community members believe he was unaware that he was being confronted by officers on the night of the incident and he was wrongly killed by police.
Several protests have occurred in San Jose in support of Stanley, including one with dozens of people marching on Guadalupe Freeway, according to a June 2, 2021 ABC 7 article.
Stanley’s family and activists believe Stanley was protecting himself, his home and his family.
Lake said on the same day of Stanley’s death, he called her saying there were people outside her car a few hours prior to the shooting.
She said following Stanley’s death she initially “blamed herself” and felt guilty.
“It’s like maybe I could have done something or maybe I could have seen [the undercover officers] and I could have called them out,” Lake said. “This incident didn't happen because of something that I didn't do - like this happened because of those plainclothes officers' behaviors and what they were doing.”
On Sept. 15, 2021, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office released a report identifying Anthony Baza as the officer who shot Stanley.
Two days after the shooting, officers described the incident as “escalating so quickly that Baza did not have time to identify himself, according to a Sept. 17, 2021 Mercury News article.
However, the DA’s Sept. 15, 2021 report said prosecutors cite the surveillance video as Baza saying “Get the fuck out of here, police!” and “almost simultaneously” firing four shots at Stanley, according to the same article.
“In that split second, Officer Baza had no other reasonable choice than to shoot Stanley to save his own life,” Deputy District Attorney Rob Baker wrote in the report.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen cleared Baza of criminal liability, according to the same Mercury news article.
Lake said after Stanley was shot her perception of the San Jose Police changed.
“Every time I see a car now I just get like - I get like this bowl of anxiety and when things first happened, I would get kind of emotional about it,” she said. “Like I wouldn't necessarily cry, but I would feel my eyelids really strong like sadness or really strong like anger.”
Lake added that Stanley’s death has made her “stronger in advocacy” but sometimes it can be overwhelming.
She said when attending other protests, it’s difficult to think about other individuals who were shot by police without also thinking about “her own personal loss.”
“[Advocacy and protesting is] a little overwhelming, but I feel as though it's my obligation, you know, out of my love for my uncle and out of you know just the fact that I am a Black person in America.”
Phillip Watkins
Watkins, 23, was in the middle of a mental health crisis on Feb. 11, 2015, when he called the police from his fiance’s mother’s house on 1377 Sherman St. in San Jose and said a man armed with a knife was trying to break in, according to a Sept. 29, 2015 District Attorney’s office report on Watkins’ death. .
Watkins fabricated the scenario and when arriving San Jose Police Department officers James Soh and Ryan Dote saw Watkins coming toward them holding a four-inch blade, they warned him to stop and drop the knife. They shot him “multiple” times, and he died later at a local hospital, according to the same report.
Sharon Watkins said they shot her son within five minutes of arrival and believed they didn’t approach the situation with de-escalation in mind.
“I think a lot of times they just go to get rid of the problem, what they perceive to be as the problem,” Watkins said. “And they know that [it’s] going to be very little to none, none of their responsibility.”
Soh and Dote were “justified” in their use of force because of great threat of death or bodily injury, according to the DA report.
In the wake of her son’s death, Watkins said many defined his death as “suicide by cop.”
This was also noted in the DA report, as Santa Clara County DA Jeffrey Rosen and Deputy DA Charles Gillingham stated Watkins was “intent on dying at the hands of police officers.”
“It is not a legal term. It is sometimes something that they use to push the fault on the victim,” Watkins said. “I mean, if he was standing on a bridge threatening to go kill himself, would [they] go shoot him?”
She said victims’ deaths affect their children, which she witnessed as her granddaughter experienced her father’s absence in the years following his death.
“After about a year, when she was about four, she would say, ‘Grandma, when is God going to let dad come home and take me to the movies?’ ” She said. “You know, how do you answer that? I said, ‘he's real, real busy doing stuff for God.’ ”
She also said she felt families of those killed by police officers are treated worse than criminals after their deaths as they’re questioned by police officers after “the worst thing that you ever thought could happen to you just happened.”
Because of this, Watkins, other families who’ve lost people to police brutality and Silicon Valley De-Bug have been working on a police violence victim bill of rights, Watkins said. Some of their requests include omitting mugshots on TV and not being interrogated at police stations after police violence occurs.
Her daughter often questions her about why she continues to “retraumatize” herself by being active in the community and pushing for reform, but she said it’s so those around her don’t forget her son and those others who’ve died from police violence.
“There are some people that have gotten frustrated and have stopped and that's okay because I'll keep going . . . I'll fight for their loved ones,” Watkins said. “I feel it's like a calling to be honest with you. It's not something that I want to do but it's something that has to be done.”
