Officer, suspect from Vallejo police shooting last week identified

VALLEJO – Vallejo police Officer Brad Kim shot and wounded burglary suspect Jamazea Kittell after Kittell allegedly hit him with a car while fleeing a burglary scene last week, Vallejo police said Monday.

Police released Kim and Kittell’s names in a statement on Monday but have provided few other details about the shooting. Vallejo city officials said last week that they expect to release body camera video of the shooting on July 11.

Kim and other Vallejo police officers had responded to a burglary in progress at Grand gas at 1401 Springs Road at about 4 a.m. on June 27. According to police radio broadcasts from that day, the owner of the gas station reported the burglary after seeing four or five people enter the business on live surveillance video.

Kittell allegedly got into a stolen vehicle and hit Kim while fleeing. During a brief press conference last week, interim police Chief Jason Ta said that Kim ended up on the hood of the car. Kim fired at Kittell, who was wounded.

Ta said that Kittell continued driving and crashed into a building across the street. A bystander video provided to the Vallejo Sun shows evidence markers strewn through the gas station parking lot and into Hilton Street toward bakery Cakes by Karl.

Both Kim and Kittell were taken to a hospital. Kittell was later booked into jail, according to police. Kittell was scheduled to appear in court on charges of attempted murder of a police officer, burglary and vehicle theft on Monday afternoon, according to court records.

The Solano County District Attorney’s Office said that Kittell remains in jail without bail.

Vallejo police confirmed last week that officers pursued another burglary suspect from the gas station into the Hercules area.

Vallejo police pursued the gray truck on Interstate Highway 80 at speeds of 100 mph across the Carquinez Bridge.

The driver got off the highway and fled to Refugio Valley Road, where he went offroad into a field and then ran from the truck and hid from officers. Officers searched for him in the area but were unable to find him. Kittell was the only suspect in the burglary who was arrested.

There have been numerous recent burglaries in the area. Business owner Tony Diaz, who operates Tony’s Cakes a few blocks away on Springs Road, said in April that his shop had been broken into six times in six months. Vallejo police released statistics last month showing that residential and commercial burglary was up 23% this year, though other crime categories were down.

The shooting was the first involving the Vallejo Police Department since Detective Jarrett Tonn shot and killed Sean Monterrosa in June 2020.

Prior to that, the Vallejo Police Department was one of the most deadly law enforcement agencies in the state, with a higher proportion of police shootings than other agencies in Northern California.