A group of people on a hunger strike sat in front of the Antioch Police Department Friday night, demanding the firing of an officer they call a “problem cop.”
They say they are willing to go without food until they get their demands met.
“Michael Malone needs to be removed from Antioch police,” said Lacey Brown, who’s part of the strike.
Officer Malone is one of two officers who shot and killed Luis Gongora Pat in April 2016 after responding to reports of a man waving a knife in San Francisco.
The Gongora Pat family filed a lawsuit and settled out of court.
Officer Malone moved on from San Francisco P.D. to Antioch in 2019.
The protestors, along with Gongora Pat’s cousin, say that shouldn’t be allowed to happen.
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“It all starts with accountability and that accountability should have started in 2016. Chief Brooks knew what Officer Malone had done and he welcomed him onto the force with open arms,” said Maria Brown.
NBC Bay Area reached out to the Antioch Police Department late Friday afternoon regarding the hunger strike and Officer Malone but did not hear back.
Issues like these are getting statewide attention.
A California senate bill that would have created a statewide process to look into an officers past before being hired at other departments made through the assembly but the bill didn’t make it to the floor for a vote.
A disappointment for the bill’s co-author Senator Scott Wiener.
“Senate Bill 731 would have created a process, would have banned a police officer to continue to work as an officer; it's not meant for minor violations, it's meant for officers engaged in serious misconduct,” Wiener said.
He added that it would have also helped community engagement. In fact that’s another one of the hunger striker’s demands, to give a voice to community members when it comes to police reform.
The hunger strikers say they will stay in place as long as it takes until they get their demands met.
