DA releases details of fatal shooting by officer in Daly City

An officer saw three people — two men in the front, including Allen in the front passenger’s seat, and a woman in the backseat — in a parked truck with a damaged rear tire about 2:30 p.m. on the 700 block of Niantic Avenue and stopped to talk to the driver, according to the summary.

A second and a third officer arrived and stood on the passenger side of the truck as the first officer talked to the driver, who was cooperative, Wagstaffe said.

The front passenger door was open and the officers “saw what appeared to be a Glock firearm (handgun) on the lap of passenger Roger Allen,” according to the account. “The officers yelled out there was a gun and Mr. Allen picked the gun up and held it in his hand.”

One of the officers leaned in and grabbed Allen’s hand in an effort to prevent the gun from being fired, Wagstaffe said, and a struggle ensued, with the weapon at one point directed at the officer and driver standing on the other side of the truck, then at the officer struggling with Allen.

When the second officer on the passenger side “saw the gun pointed at the face of the officer struggling with Mr. Allen, he reported he feared that his fellow officer was going to be shot in the face,” Wagstaffe said. “He fired his service handgun at Mr. Allen twice, with one shot striking Mr. Allen in the chest and the other shot missing and lodging inside the vehicle.”

Allen was given emergency aid before he was taken to San Francisco General Hospital where he died about 90 minutes later, according to the account.

The suspected handgun “turned out to be a replica handgun that was stamped with the word Glock. It is not a firearm. There was no orange tape around the tip of the gun to show that it was not a real firearm,” Wagstaffe said.

During the struggle, the officer outside the driver’s side “was struck in the forehead by an unidentified small object causing a minor abrasion,” Wagstaffe said.

The Daly City Police Department has the responsibility of releasing of the names of the officers, Wagstaffe said, who expects the investigation to continue for the next two months.

In a statement from the city, officials said they are not releasing the identity of the involved officers at this time, as this case is under active investigation. However, the statement said as authorities move forward with investigations of the officer-involved shooting, the city is committed to providing our community with as much information as possible without compromising the investigations.

“This is a tragic event in our community, and the city is committed to an equitable process. The district attorney’s active investigation is the first step in revealing the details of what occurred. Per the district attorney, the investigation will be ongoing over the next two months,” Daly City Mayor Juslyn Manalo said in the statement.

Anyone with information relevant to the case is asked to call the District Attorney’s Office Chief Inspector William Massey at (650) 363-4883.