Former San Jose police officer Mark McNamara, who resigned in early November as racist textual content messages emerged, had his non-public stockpile of weapons confiscated on the time as a consequence of a restraining order for allegedly threatening to shoot a Black lawyer, based on new reporting by the Mercury Information.
McNamara, who joined the power in 2017, had an arsenal of 18 firearms taken away final month amid an ongoing civil investigation right into a March 2022 capturing during which McNamara wounded a Black man at a Mexican restaurant in downtown San Jose, based on courtroom paperwork filed final month.
Below the phrases of the probe, McNamara can’t get his weapons again till Could 2024.
The officer resigned on Nov. 1, two days earlier than the “disgusting” textual content messages got here to mild, whereas the restraining order in opposition to McNamara was ordered on Nov. 6, the Mercury Information stories.
One of many textual content messages that prompted the order was despatched to legal professional Adanté Pointer — who’s representing 21-year-old Ok’aun Inexperienced, a junior faculty soccer participant who filed the civil motion after McNamara and different officers shot him a number of occasions.
The textual content messages, in the meantime, led to the dismissal of one other unnamed San Jose officer and inside self-discipline for a 3rd officer who was positioned on administrative depart.
One of many messages despatched by McNamara was crammed with expletives and included informal utilization of the N-word.
“The opposite day this n— lawyer is like Mr. McNamara, we will nonetheless discover you responsible of extreme power proper? I’m like, hmmm yeah then (what) occurs?? … Suppose I give a f— what y’all n— assume?!???? I’ll shoot you too!!!!!” McNamara wrote after giving a deposition capturing Inexperienced.
Pointer has not commented publicly on the matter for the reason that textual content messages have been launched to the general public on Nov. 3 on account of a separate inside investigation into McNamara, however officers have thus far saved a decent lid on the main points of the separate probe.
After town declined to characterize McNamara within the civil lawsuit, native legal professional Susan Coleman assumed the function of defending the officer within the racially charged case.
Black leaders in San Jose mentioned they took McNamara at his phrase and decided the messages he despatched have been a critical risk to the group.
“Anybody with energy or authority who abuses it must be stripped (of it),” Rev. Jethroe Moore, president of the native NAACP chapter, mentioned in an interview on Thursday. “Clearly, there’s one thing mentally unstable there. As a result of gun violence just isn’t a laughing matter.”
McNamara despatched different texts that declared, “I hate Black folks,” whereas mocking Inexperienced’s capturing at La Victoria Taqueria on March 27, 2022.
On the night time of the incident, Inexperienced was contained in the taqueria together with his buddies when a random man walked in and began a battle with Inexperienced and his buddies.
The assailant briefly left the institution and returned with two different males, one in all whom flashed a gun, which triggered a wrestle.
Somebody on the scene known as police as Inexperienced broke up the battle and “wrestled the gun away,” Pointer mentioned beforehand.
By the point Inexperienced exited the restaurant with the gun nonetheless in hand, McNamara had arrived from about 800 toes away at one other crime scene. The officer opened fireplace, hitting Inexperienced a number of occasions.
“N— wished to hold a gun within the Wild West … Not on my watch,” McNamara mentioned in one of many textual content messages to fellow officers, which he despatched a day after the capturing.
After the capturing, McNamara claimed he thought Inexperienced was linked to a murder that occurred lower than a mile away, however police finally arrested one other suspect, resulting in Inexperienced’s lawsuit in 2022 for financial and punitive damages.
In one other message, McNamara advised the capturing was a boon for Inexperienced as he would profit financially from it.
“They need to all be bowing to me and bringing me presents since I saved a fellow n— by making him wealthy as f—. In any other case, he woulda lived a lifetime of poverty and crime.”
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan known as McNamara’s texts “vile” and mentioned the “language and conduct doesn’t characterize the various officers in our division who work each day to maintain us all protected.”
