ANTIOCH — The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office has released two new videos showing four Antioch police officers shoot and wound a 30-year-old man last October as he ran from them while allegedly armed.
The videos, obtained by through a records request by the Bay Area News Group, include body camera footage from officers Thomas Borg and Shawn Marques, two of the cops who shot 30-year-old Daniel Mackin on Oct. 1. The other two officers have been identified as Kyle Armstrong — who’d been hired just four days earlier — and Dustin Dibble.
The footage shows officers firing dozens of shots at Mackin during a foot chase in downtown Antioch near A and West 3rd streets on the city’s waterfront. In the video, Mackin can be seen leaving a van and beginning to flee; an officer yells out “he’s reaching,” and the first shots are fired moments later.
Mackin has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer for allegedly pointing his gun at police and with possession of a firearm as a felon. The charges are still pending and no trial date has been set. Mackin’s lawyer has filed a motion to obtain any records related to alleged misconduct by the Antioch Police Department.
The city has still not made good on a pledge to release their footage of the Oct. 1, 2023 shooting after a video shot by a civilian was widely circulated, showing the officers fire at Mackin as he ran from them with his back turned. A statement by the Antioch police officials called that footage misleading and included screenshots of the moment police say Mackin turned and pointed his gun at them.
State law requires law enforcement agencies to publicly release footage of police shootings within 45 days of an officer firing a gun. Antioch blew past that deadline about two months ago. Acting Antioch police Chief Joseph Vigil did not respond when asked for a comment on the shooting or why APD has not yet released the videos.
This new footage became public record, however, when it was played at Mackin’s preliminary hearing last November, where a judge held him to answer on all charges.
The videos show officers line up on one side of a van containing Mackin and order him out of the car.
The officers wanted to arrest Mackin on a Ramey warrant for questioning in a homicide case. He was never charged in connection with the homicide, and police haven’t said which killing it was.
The van driver attempts to drive away but gets caught on a median. Mackin can then be seen leaving the van and running from the officers, who pursue, accompanied by a police dog. It is then that Borg’s video captures an officer yelling, “He’s reaching,” followed by shots, as Mackin continues to run.
A few seconds later, with the officers still firing behind him, Mackin falls to the ground. It is unclear from the video if this is the result of being shot or from his pants falling down.
Once on the ground, Mackin raises up his hand. This moment is when police say he pointed a silver revolver at them. The grainy footage — lower quality than the naked eye — makes it difficult to see what’s in his hand as it’s raised.
Mackin almost immediately gets up and starts running, as officers continue to run after him and fire several rounds. A few seconds later, he falls to the ground and an officer yells that Mackin has thrown the gun. As Borg runs up to him, stun gun in hand, he passes by a silver revolver with a wooden handle seen on the sidewalk a few feet from where Mackin had been running. The footage ends with officers gathering to handcuff him in the middle of the street.
The officers were placed on paid administrative leave after the shooting, per department policy. Authorities did not say immediately whether the officers had returned to work since the shooting.
The shooting came just weeks after 14 current and former Pittsburg and Antioch police employees were charged with a range of crimes, including an indictment alleging three former Antioch officers committed violent civil rights violations. That scandal was compounded by revelations that dozens of officers were involved in racist, homophobic, and sexist text communications, which placed up to 40 percent of the department on administrative leave.
The administrative investigations related to the offensive texts cannot take more than a year if disciplines or firings are to take place, and this probe has a fast approaching mid-March deadline.
None of the officers involved in the shooting of Mackin are subjects in either of those investigations. In fact, Armstrong was one of the officers the city hired to help fill the employment gap over the convergent scandals.
Source: www.mercurynews.com