Vallejo police Officer David McLaughlin confronts Adrian Burrell outside his Vallejo home on Jan. 22, 2019. Video courtesy Adrian Burrell.
The city of Vallejo has agreed to pay $300,000 to local filmmaker and U.S. Marines veteran Adrian Burrell, wh…
Vallejo police Officer David McLaughlin confronts Adrian Burrell outside his Vallejo home on Jan. 22, 2019. Video courtesy Adrian Burrell.
The city of Vallejo has agreed to pay $300,000 to local filmmaker and U.S. Marines veteran Adrian Burrell, who filed an excessive force lawsuit against the city after he was tackled by a Vallejo police officer while filming a traffic stop in 2019, according to the settlement obtained by the Vallejo Sun via a public records request.
The case made national headlines because of Vallejo police Officer David McLaughlin’s apparent attempt to prevent his actions from being recorded. Burrell’s footage shows McLaughlin hold a motorcycle rider at gunpoint in the driveway of Burrell’s home.
Burrell filmed the stop from the front porch of his home about 30 feet away. When McLaughlin saw Burrell, he ordered him to stop filming and go inside. Burrell refused. McLaughlin holstered his weapon and approached Burrell.
Burrell said in his lawsuit that McLaughlin smashed his face into a wall and swung him into a pole. He applied the handcuffs so tight it broke the skin on his right hand and left his fingers numb, Burrell’s suit alleged.
McLaughlin has been a Vallejo police officer since 2014 and was previously in the Oakland Police Department. His twin brother, Ryan McLaughlin, is also a Vallejo police officer. Both brothers have previously been sued for alleged civil rights violations.
In 2014, David McLaughlin was named in a suit alleging that he and another officer pulled over Frederick Cooley without cause, held him at gunpoint and searched his car.
The complaint alleges they falsified a police report saying that Cooley was in possession of a controlled substance, but the Solano County District Attorney's Office later abandoned those charges. The civil case was dismissed after Cooley died.
Officer David McLaughlin has also been involved in two shootings since joining Vallejo police. He and Officer Matt Komoda fired on a suspect who..
