Fremont Police defend fatal Officer involved shooting

FREMONT, Calif. (KGO) -- The brother of a man Fremont Police shot and killed last week is talking with ABC7 News about what happened.

Employees at a Verizon Wireless on Argonaut Way called 911 last Sunday according to the Fremont Police Department to report Nana Adomako, who police say grabbed a phone from an employee, hit him and threatened to kill him.

Fremont Police Officer James Taylor located Adomako nearby and during a fight shot him. Adomako died at the scene.

"All we're asking for is the truth," said Adomako's brother Nana Dwomoh.

Dwomoh says Adomako was suffering with mental illness but was never violent.

According to the Fremont Police Department Adomako hit Officer Taylor in the head. Part of the confrontation was captured on patrol car video.

"My observations of the video it was such a sudden and violent attack that I think Officer Taylor did a fantastic job trying to survive that particular situation by going through and considering the tools that he had available for him at the time," said Captain Sean Washington who is investigating the incident.

Washington says those tools included a tazer Officer Taylor did not use because Adomako was wearing bulky clothing and it would have been ineffective.

"He rationalized it wasn't going to be effective without first using it," said Adomako's brother.

Officer Taylor released his K9 named Cairo but police say the dog nipped Officer Taylor while trying to orient himself in the fight.

"Certainly not our intention in that circumstance we'd prefer that the dog overcomes the resistance that we're trying to overcome," said Lt. Matthew Snelson who manages the K9 unit.

Lt. Snelson says 5-year-old Cairo has been with the department a little over 3 years. He says the dogs will often go after the lesser of the two in a fight or whoever is on the ground so they do everything they can in training to try to educate the handler and prepare the dog.

"This is the first instance that I can ever think of in my 13 years with the department and being involved with the K9 unit for over 10 years where we've ever had this instance occur in a live event. I could list tens if not twenties of instances where our dogs have actually

overcome resistance and stopped us from having to use greater force," said Lt. Snelson.

Lt. Snelson says Cairo will be evaluated and potentially re-trained if necessary.

Police say Officer Taylor fired 3 shots in close contact with Adomako.

"He didn't deserve to die this way," said Adomako's brother.

Officer Taylor is recovering from his injuries and on paid administrative leave while the Fremont Police Department and the Alameda County District Attorney's Office investigate the shooting.