The Vallejo Police Department has released new evidence related to the police killings of Mario Romero and Mohammed Naas more than a decade ago, including videos the city had previously labeled destroyed, in response to a public records lawsuit by Open Vallejo.
The recently recovered audiovisual records represent only a fraction of case files that Vallejo illegally purged in 2021 at the request of Det. Sgt. Mathew Mustard with approval from Assistant City Attorney Katelyn Knight. A 2023 Open Vallejo investigation revealed Vallejo’s widespread destruction of evidence in police shootings of six people, including Romero and Naas, based largely on documents and depositions obtained through the newsroom’s public records lawsuit against the city.
In May 2023, Solano County Superior Court Judge Stephen Gizzi ruled that the destruction of evidence violated state law. Gizzi ordered the city to produce all outstanding records by the end of November that year; it has yet to do so…