Alameda County DA Drops Charges Against San Leandro Officer in Fatal 2020 Shooting

An Alameda County judge granted the Alameda County District Attorney’s request to drop charges against a former San Leandro police officer who shot and killed a man in a Walmart store in 2020.

Deputy District Attorney Darby Williams argued Friday that the office didn’t believe it could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that former Officer Jason Fletcher was not justified in using deadly force in self-defense when he shot Steven Taylor, 33.

“I have reviewed every single shred of evidence … we simply, factually cannot meet our burden [of proof],” Williams told Superior Court Judge Clifford Blakely.

Blakely told the courtroom that after weighing the evidence with the community’s interest in seeing Taylor’s case go to trial, “the balance falls in favor of granting [the dismissal] motion.”

The move has sparked outrage from Taylor’s family and their supporters, who say they have been waiting nearly six years for justice in the case slated to go to trial next month.

Last month, a different judge denied a motion by Fletcher’s defense to dismiss the case over alleged prosecutorial misconduct.

On Tuesday, District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson filed the motion to drop the charges, writing that Fletcher “was left with no reasonable alternative.”

“Fletcher, in a confined space, was confronted by Taylor, who was armed, refused to comply with verbal commands, was tased twice without appreciable effect, and had verbally indicated an intention to force Fletcher to use physical force up to and including his firearm,” the motion reads.

On April 18, 2020, Fletcher was the first to respond to the scene after Walmart security guards reported Taylor attempting to shoplift. Cell phone and body camera footage from the day shows Taylor carrying a metal baseball bat by the store entrance.

The officer approached Taylor and attempted to take the metal bat from his hands. Then, Fletcher used a taser twice before shooting Taylor with a gun. The entire altercation spanned just 40 seconds.

Taylor’s grandmother, Addie Kitchen, asked the judge not to throw out the case on Friday, alleging that Jones Dickson violated her rights as the victim’s representative to timely notice that it would be dropped.

She said Jones Dickson told her, for the first time just before filing the motion on Tuesday, that the case was old and she didn’t believe it was winnable.

“Let the jury make the decision,” Kitchen said. “If that was their decision that the officer wasn’t guilty, at least the people in Alameda would make that decision. Not the DA.”

The move is the latest in a series by the DA’s office to rollback progressive reforms made under former District Attorney Pamela Price, who was recalled last year.

Since taking office, Jones Dickson has also dismissed charges against law enforcement officers in multiple other high-profile cases, including the 2021 deaths of Maurice Monk and Vinetta Martin, who were both found dead in Santa Rita Jail cells in separate incidents. She’s also dropped efforts to resentence some death row inmates after Price revealed that the DA’s office had covered up efforts to exclude Black and Jewish jurors from their cases.