Vallejo officer who shot robbery suspect Monday was confirmed badge bender

VALLEJO – A Vallejo police officer who shot and wounded a robbery suspect during a pursuit on Monday testified last year that a department superior had bent his badge to mark a shooting in 2016. 

Two sources with knowledge of the incident identified the shooter as Corporal Matthew Komoda. The shooting is Komoda’s fourth as a Vallejo police officer following shootings in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Komoda testified last March that former Vallejo police Lt. Kent Tribble bent his and his partner’s badges following the 2016 shooting. 

Vallejo police have released few details about the shooting this week. According to police radio traffic, a robbery suspect pointed his gun at Komoda during a brief foot pursuit and Komoda shot him in the arm. The suspect was wounded and police called for medical assistance.

The incident started after two men in a white Lexus allegedly robbed a man and his brother at gunpoint outside of Seafood City at 3495 Sonoma Blvd. at around 11:30 a.m., according to police radio.

A short time later, an officer spotted the Lexus driving on Sonoma Boulevard. Police pursued the driver, who crashed into another car at Sonoma Boulevard and Tennessee Street, according to police.

The Lexus stopped a block away at Sonoma Boulevard and Alabama Street. A man fled from the crash scene. Komoda said over the radio that the man pointed a gun at him, and he fired, wounding the man in the arm. 

Police called an ambulance for a person in the other car at Sonoma and Tennessee, who suffered a head injury in the crash, according to police radio. Police did not disclose their condition.

Investigators with the state Department of Justice and the Solano County Major Crimes Task Force, which investigates police shootings, were at the scene Monday.

Komoda is one of the most prolific shooters in the department, tied with Lt. Steve Darden and Detective Jarrett Tonn, who each have also been involved in four shootings. Komoda started with Oakland police in 2006 and transferred to Vallejo in 2014. He is a board member for the Vallejo Police Officers Association.

Komoda’s first shooting was on Aug. 31, 2016, when he and Officer David McLaughlin were working patrol in Vallejo when they tried to stop a dark Audi SUV for speeding. The vehicle stopped on a dead end street and Komoda and McLaughlin told investigators that as they were getting out of their car the Audi started moving in reverse. Fearing they were going to be hit, they fired at the SUV but neither hit the driver.

Last year, Tribble testified that after the incident he bent both Komoda and McLaughlin’s badges at the Relay Club, a bar across the street from police headquarters, to make them feel better for not shooting the driver of the Audi.

Komoda testified that he and McLaughlin were unaware of the practice when Tribble, who was a sergeant at the time, asked them to meet him at the Relay and to bring their badges. 

Tribble then asked them for their badges over beers, and he bent the tip of each with his hand, explaining that he was doing it because, “you were involved in a critical incident, you handled it professionally, and you came out OK.”

Komoda testified that both he and McLaughlin were unhappy that Tribble had done it and that they both bent the tips back after. But they did not bring it to the attention of superiors. Komoda said that he thought he was a “victim” of badge bending.

Komoda was then one of five officers who shot and killed Jeffrey Barboa after a pursuit into Richmond on Aug. 2, 2017. Barboa had gotten out of the car and was approaching the officers with a machete over his head.

Then on Nov. 1, 2018, Komoda, McLaughlin and Officer George Simpson shot and wounded Dominic Milano after a pursuit into Oakland, where Milano fired on the officers. Milano survived the shooting and is charged with attempted murder of Komoda. 

Komoda testified about the badge bending in hearings over the Milano shooting, but Komoda testified that his badge wasn’t bent after that incident.