Another troubling deadly shooting by Bay Area police. Another promise by California Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate. And, if history is an indicator, another case that his office will take years to resolve.
This time the shooting is in Martinez. Video shows officers firing at a car as it drives away. One man, Tommy Wilson Jr., 22, was critically injured but is recovering. He had been shot twice in the back. His brother, Tahmon Wilson, 20, is dead. He had been shot in the back of the head.
It’s hard to understand how firing into a moving vehicle as suspects are trying to flee can be justified. It’s hard to understand how it’s OK for an officer to shoot someone from behind. That’s why an independent investigation is so badly needed.
Hours after the killings, Bonta announced that his office would conduct a probe as required by state law. The law stems from legislation that Bonta, when he was an assemblymember, and more than 40 other legislators introduced just three weeks after a Minneapolis officer murdered George Floyd.
Jumping on the police accountability bandwagon was good politics in that moment in 2020. But three years later, Bonta has been pathetically slow to carry out the legal mandate of the law he championed. The delays must stop.
Assembly Bill 1506 requires his office to investigate fatal police shootings of unarmed civilians. In July 2021, Bonta announced that 27 special agents and six supervisory agents would begin conducting investigations of an expected 40-50 police shootings each year.
“One of the most important tasks ahead for public safety and our society is building and maintaining trust between our communities and law enforcement,” Bonta said in a press statement. “Impartial, fair investigations and independent reviews of officer-involved shootings are one essential component for achieving that trust.”
That was less than three months after Bonta had been appointed attorney general to fill the post left by Xavier Becerra’s departure for Washington to become President Biden’s health secretary. That was back when Bonta was gearing up for the 2022 election for a full four-year term.
Since then, Bonta and his office have dropped the ball. Their stated goal is to complete the investigations within one year. It hasn’t come close. The office has finished just three investigations, all Southern California cases. It’s been about five months since the last report was issued.
