Photo Courtesy of Adante Pointer
San Jose police shot a young Bay Area college football player during a fight at a taqueria on Sunday (March 27).
K’aun Green’s attorney, Adonte Pointer, said the young athlete “was trying to enjoy his meal, and a man who was intoxicated and that man’s friends came in and threatened everyone with a gun,” according to NBC Bay Area.
The 20-year-old college student heroically wrestled a gun away from the man during a fight inside La Victoria Taqueria before being shot by a responding officer.
Surveillance video shows the fight inside. During the altercation, someone pulled a gun.
“My client sprung into action and defended himself against this gunman, disarmed the gunman,” the attorney said.
San Jose police Chief Anthony Mata said,
“The team of officers approached as the fight moved out the door and onto the landing, and one person is holding a handgun. The officer says ‘drop the gun,’ and he does not drop the gun, so one officer fires at least once and hits the individual,” Mata said.
Mata said the officer did not know who brought the gun to the restaurant. The information was not revealed until after the detectives viewed the surveillance footage after the shooting.
Police arrested 30-year-old Brian Carter and planned to charge him as a felon possessing an illegal firearm.
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Community members on Friday held a rally for Green.
About 50 people were organized to show solidarity with Green and his family. According to Mercury News, folks passed around a flier at the event calling for San Jose police to release unedited body-camera footage of the incident. They also want the police to compensate Green for his suffering and reveal and fire the officer who shot him.
“We’re tired of being here,” Santa Clara County public defender and district attorney candidate Sajid Khan told attendees. “But we’re here because of pain, grief, and trauma, again at the hands of the very institutions we are paying to protect us, allegedly.”
Green was playing football at Contra Costa College and still hopes to resume his football career when he recovers.
“We expect him to be transferred and will be spending a considerable amount of time in a rehabilitation facility going through physical therapy and all the different things that he’s going to, unfortunately, have to go through in order to try to have a chance at regaining the life he once had,” attorney Adante Pointer said.