Vallejo officer seen punching woman in video had history of force complaints

VALLEJO – A Vallejo police officer who was seen in a viral video punching a woman during an arrest after a pursuit and crash last week has been identified as Officer Colin Eaton, one of six officers who shot and killed Willie McCoy in 2019, according to two people familiar with the criminal case.

In addition to shooting McCoy after he was found unresponsive in a Taco Bell drive-thru allegedly with a gun on his lap, Eaton was one of two officers who Tased McCoy’s niece during a traffic stop about two months later in an incident that alarmed a police captain. He was suspended for 80 hours in 2020 for stepping on a man’s head during a search. 

A bystander recorded Eaton pull a woman out of her car following a pursuit, smash her against a truck, to the ground, and then punch her in the face. The video went viral on TikTok on Friday. The woman, who was identified in jail records as 19-year-old Maiya Green, has been charged with evading police, hit-and-run and grand theft. She is next scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 30.

Police said that Green had shoplifted approximately $2,000 worth of merchandise from a nearby store and fled from police, running a red light and hitting a cement truck and an SUV carrying a woman and her two children, injuring the mother.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta, who gave a press conference in Vallejo on Monday to announce a new stipulated judgment for Vallejo police reforms, said that he had seen the video and said “it was disturbing and it was concerning.” He said that the incident would be investigated and that the reform efforts are intended to avoid such incidents in the future.

Police said that the incident that led to the viral video started when loss prevention staff at a business in the 1100 block of Admiral Callaghan Lane flagged down the officer on Friday and pointed out a blue Nissan leaving the parking lot.

When the officer tried to stop the Nissan, the driver fled, and the officer pursued the car until the driver ran a red light and collided with an SUV and a cement truck. 

The officer opened the door to arrest the driver, and police said she tried to flee, so he "conducted a control hold take down to prevent her from running," police said.

"Once the suspect was on the ground, she continued to actively resist, pivoting her body and gauging the officer's arm in an attempt to escape, prompting him to strike her once to gain immediate compliance," police said in a statement.

A passenger in the Nissan also fled, but two bystanders grabbed her and held her down until more officers arrived, according to police. Police found about $2,000 of suspected stolen merchandise in the Nissan. Police said the store also implicated the two women in a previous theft last month. They were taken to a hospital and then booked into jail.

Eaton has been a Vallejo police officer since 2017. Prior to that, he spent 8 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. 

In 2019, he fired 13 of the 55 bullets fired into McCoy’s silver Mercedes on Feb. 9, 2019, more than any other officer. Eaton was not disciplined for that incident and only one of the six officers who fired was: Officer Ryan McMahon, who was fired for endangering another officer’s life.

About two months later, Eaton was one of two officers who arrested McCoy’s niece Deyana Jenkins. A lawsuit alleges that Eaton and Officer Jordan Patzer – another officer who killed McCoy – held Jenkins at gunpoint, dragged her out of the car, threw her on the ground and Tased her. A bystander recorded the events on a cell phone.

Jenkins was arrested and taken to jail, but the Solano County District Attorney’s office didn’t charge her with a crime. Jenkins sued the department and her lawsuit is still pending.

Former police Capt. John Whitney was alarmed by video of Jenkins’ arrest and brought it to the attention of then-police Chief Andrew Bidou, but the officers were not disciplined for the incident, according to deposition testimony in Whitney’s lawsuit. 

Whitney also sought accountability for officers’ practice of bending the tips of their badges following a shooting but was fired after he raised concerns with city leaders. He eventually went public with the scandal, sued the department, and settled his lawsuit for $900,000.

The arrest that led to Eaton’s suspension happened on April 19, 2020, when Eaton responded to a call of a man exposing himself. As officers arrived, the man had his pants halfway down.

Eaton pulled out his baton as he approached the man and told him “Get down right now, I will fuck you up. Sit down, I will fuck you up.”

Another officer also arrived, whose name is redacted in the reports. She told investigators she ordered the man to sit down several times and pushed him over to handcuff him. The other officer told investigators that the man stiffened his limbs to prevent from being handcuffed. Eaton hit the man once with a baton.

According to the officers, the suspect then complied, but Eaton put his foot on the man’s head “to prevent him from moving about and resisting further.”

An initial internal investigation conducted by then-Sgt. Sanjay Ramrakha only found that Eaton violated the department’s policies on discourteous and disrespectful treatment as well as profane language. 

Ramrakha did not, however, find that Eaton violated the use of force policy for putting his boot on the man’s head. Instead, then-Deputy Chief Michael Kihmm made that determination after he reviewed the case. Kihmm was himself fired in 2021.