San Jose: New video released in March 27 police shooting of K’aun Green

SAN JOSE — Newly released police body-camera and security video reveal a new level of detail about a brawl inside a downtown taqueria and the police shooting that rapidly unfolded after K’aun Green backed out the front door holding a handgun disarmed from a man he and his friend were fighting.

The additional footage was publicly posted Tuesday in an edited video package from the San Jose Police Department that included a summary of the department’s in-progress investigation of the March 27 shooting at the La Victoria restaurant near San Jose State University. The police compilation also publicly names the officer who shot Green: Mark McNamara, a four-year member of SJPD.

Security video from inside the restaurant, compiled by police, shows a man appearing to start a fight with Green by throwing a punch at the former McClymonds High School star quarterback. Green then rushes the man and takes him to the ground before landing several punches to his head.

Seconds later, a man who police identified as 30-year-old Bryan Carter brandishes a handgun — prompting dozens of patrons to rush out of the restaurant — but Green’s friend wraps up Carter and attempts to take control of the weapon. Green then gets up and helps his friend take the handgun away from Carter, with Green taking sole possession of the firearm.

At one point, the magazine of the handgun falls to the ground, and Green is seen loading it back into the gun, as the struggle between the two pairs of men comes to a standstill that includes some light grappling between Green’s friend and Carter.

Green is later shown walking backwards toward the front door as Carter and the man who Green fought continue walking after him, seeming to grab at the handgun, which Green is now holding up in the air in his left hand.

Body-camera excerpts released for the first time show the vantage points of two officers who were walking up the steps leading to the restaurant and positioned behind McNamara, who is the front-most officer. A combination of security footage pointed directly at the officers, and audio from the body-camera videos, show that McNamara and other officers yelled at Green to drop the gun.

Green still has his back to the officers as he exits the door, still fending off the two men trying to retake the gun. He turns slightly toward the officers and it appears that once he recognizes them he shows his hands, but by that point McNamara fired four shots. The bullets hit Green twice in his left arm, once in his left knee, and once in his abdomen.

In the days after the shooting, San Jose police Chief Anthony Mata defended his officers, saying they had no way of knowing about Green’s role in the fight or how he got the handgun. Mata added that they were responding strictly to the sight of the gun a few feet from where they were standing and what they said was Green’s refusal to drop the firearm.

Mata added that officers had rushed over to the restaurant from a crime scene a few hundred feet away involving a fatal shooting, and feared that the shooter might be inside the restaurant after seeing “frantic customers fleeing” and saying someone had a gun.

In the police video package, Sgt. Christian Camarillo emphasizes how Green broke the orbital bone of the man he was punching.

Green and his attorney, who have filed a federal civil-rights and excessive-force lawsuit against the city and McNamara, contend that Green was given no time to comply with officers’ orders before McNamara opened fire.

“In all honesty I’m in pain. I’m hurting inside and out,” the 20-year-old Oakland resident said during a Zoom press conference Thursday. “They treated me like a criminal even though I saved my friend’s life … I never thought I would be in this position, never did anything to put myself in this position.”

Among the damages they claim in the lawsuit is the potential end of Green’s college and professional football aspirations; he was attending Contra Costa College and was fielding offers to play linebacker or defensive end at Fresno State and other West Coast colleges.

“It’s still surreal to me, it just hurts to know I can’t play football this year, (but) I’m going to try my hardest to make a comeback,” Green said last week.

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