Update: Vallejo officials confirm officer who fatally shot Sean Monterrosa is returning to the force
VALLEJO – A Vallejo detective who was fired for shooting and killing a man during George Floyd protests in Vallejo in 2020 is getting his job back plus back pay, his attorney said in a statement.
Detective Jarrett Tonn was dismissed from the Vallejo force after he shot Sean Monterrosa, 22, of San Francisco, outside of a Walgreens store on Redwood Street during the early morning hours of June 2, 2020.
Tonn and two other officers were responding to alleged reports of looting at the store in an unmarked pickup truck. Body camera footage shows Tonn, who is seated in the backseat of the vehicle, stick an AR-15-style assault rifle in between the two officers and fire five times through the windshield at Monterrosa as the police vehicle approached the store.
Monterrosa died a short time later.
The decision to reverse the termination of Tonn was issued "after an evidentiary hearing and represented the second determination by a neutral hearing officer that Tonn's use of deadly force was legally justified," said Tonn's attorney Joshua Olander in a statement Monday. "His termination was not supported by the facts and the law."
Olander said Monterrosa posed an "imminent and deadly threat."
Vallejo police have alleged that Tonn fired at Monterrosa because he mistook a hammer in Monterrosa's sweatshirt pocket for the butt of a gun.
Then Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams found that Monterrosa was on his knees with his arms raised when he was shot. Tonn was at first placed on leave and then fired in 2021. In March, an arbitration hearing was held and the decision in Tonn's favor was released to his attorney on Aug. 18.
The office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta in May 2021 opened an investigation into the shooting, but there have been no updates in that case and Bonta's office will not comment on open cases.
Tonn was at first placed on administrative leave for the shooting death, but was fired in 2021 by then-Chief Shawny Williams, who determined that Monterrosa was on his knees with his hands raised when he was shot.
Monterrosa's family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Tonn that has a jury trial scheduled for January 2025.
Vallejo police have so far been mum on Tonn's return, but on Tuesday, Vallejo City Manager Mike Malone said the arbitrator told the city that Tonn should return "as soon as practicable" and that the city and the Police Department are making preparations for his reinstatement.
