Photo: Protesters mourn the deaths of Roger Allen, Daunte Wright, and Adam Toledo at vigil in San Francisco, April 15. Credit: Paul Greenberg
Roger Allen, a 44-year old Black man, was fatally shot in the chest on April 7 by Daly City police responding to a parked car with a flat tire.
The Daly City Police Department does not outfit its officers with body cameras. At present there is no publicly accessible footage of the killing. The police have released minimal information on the incident.
This shooting of yet another unarmed Black man comes as a new wave of anti-racist protests against police brutality erupts across the nation. Actions in Daly City and San Francisco’s Mission District honored the life of Roger Allen and connected his case to the larger nation-wide struggle against racist policing.
Most of the narrative surrounding the death of Roger Allen has been controlled by San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe, who claims that police approached a parked truck with three occupants and a blown-out tire to offer “assistance.” Roger Allen was then shot during an alleged scuffle over a BB gun.
It’s important to underscore that in Wagstaffe’s time as District Attorney, he has failed to file charges against any of the 52 officers involved in 19 fatal use-of-force cases.
Several members of the victim’s family have been active in this struggle, who are urging people to challenge the pro-police narrative coming from the DA’s office.
“The injustices that are happening to Black and Brown people are unacceptable. It’s time we all stand up and rise up to change that,” said Roger Allen’s aunt during last week’s vigil in Daly City. “Everybody needs to come together because: united we stand, divided we fall. They know this. They plan to divide and conquer everybody, especially the Black and Brown communities. We all need to stand together. There’s no transparency in the lies they told about my nephew. They are shading his character. No matter what he has done in his life, he deserved to go home to his family. He’s not going home, instead he’s being buried.”
None of the four officers present during the shooting have been identified. Nor is it clear why four police officers were needed to respond to a flat tire.
Roger Allen’s family deserves justice. All progressive and revolutionary people should join in demanding that Daly City Mayor Juslyn Manalo instruct Police Chief Patrick Hensley to release any video pertaining to the incident and to immediately identify the four officers involved in the killing.
