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A white Vallejo Police Department officer was recorded punching a Black woman in the face after she was involved in a car accident in Vallejo, California, on Oct. 13. TikTok user Romyr Hamilton was nearby during the arrest and recorded the footage on a cellphone. The footage captured Ofc. Colin Eaton forcibly removing the woman from her vehicle, slamming her against a cement truck, and punching her when she was on the ground near the 100 block of Admiral Callaghan Lane. The woman was reportedly a shoplifting suspect, according to the Open Vallejo. Eaton is a six-year veteran of the...

video showing a California police officer dragging a woman from her car and punching her to the ground after an alleged burglary has gone viral on social media. The shocking footage shows the end of a car chase after a business near the Gateway Plaza Shopping Center was burglarized on Friday, the Vallejo Police Department told KRON4. Police allege that the suspect was driving recklessly and crashed into a truck in the area of Auto Mall Pkwy and Admiral Callaghan Lane. The video, taken by a civilian in a car, shows an officer pulling the woman out from the car...

A "vigilant" and "brave" Vallejo citizen who happens to be a trained mixed martial artist detained a man police say deliberately started a brush fire Saturday before officers arrived and arrested him. Alex Bello said his natural instincts kicked in when he saw a man use a flare to ignite the blaze behind his Vallejo apartment complex. "It was a personal fire right behind my house, so it was something that needed to be done," Bello said in an exclusive interview Tuesday with NBC Bay Area. Police said the suspect drove to the area near Admiral Callaghan Lane Turner Parkway...

VALLEJO, Calif. - A Vallejo restaurant worker says one of her regular customers is a hero for coming to her aid when she was confronted by an apparent robber, who shot him dead. "He saved my life. That's the type of person he was. He saved my life. He's always going to be my guardian angel for life," said Teresa Brasher.

Twelve years ago, officials in Vallejo, Calif., reluctantly took a step that activists are now urging in cities across the country: They defunded their police department. Unable to pay its bills after the 2008 financial crisis, Vallejo filed for bankruptcy and cut its police force nearly in half - to fewer than 80 officers, from a pre-recession high of more than 150. At the time, the working-class city of 122,000 north of San Francisco struggled with high rates of violent crime and simmering mistrust of its police department. It didn't seem like things could get much worse. And then they...

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Imagine driving along a four-lane elevated causeway above the brackish San Pablo Bay, shaving more than an hour off the normal Highway 37 commute. Transportation planners have for years envisioned remaking the 20-mile route from Novato to Vallejo into the North Bay’s most important east-west corridor. Now, they are ready to act. Officials in Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties have been meeting for several years, pondering solutions to Highway 37’s notorious bottlenecks, where 45,000 cars per day stretch the normal 20-minute commute to as much as 100 minutes. They have also acknowledged that traffic improvements will be irrelevant without...

As on every Memorial Day, small flags will be placed next to neat, respectful rows of headstones at military cemeteries across America. Neat and respectful is not how you would describe Mare Island Naval Cemetery – a forsaken plot of hallowed ground that fell between the cracks of Pentagon base closings and the city of Vallejo’s bankruptcy. The oldest military cemetery on the West Coast is in utter disrepair. It is the final resting place for 800-plus veterans, including a few who fought in the War of 1812 and three Medal of Honor recipients. The daughter of Francis Scott Key,...

VALLEJO, Calif. — Beyond the burgers and fries coming from the kitchen and the oldies blaring from the radio, the scene playing out daily at the Original Red Onion might appear unfamiliar to much of the country. The restaurant’s married owners — Marissa Johnson, a Filipino-American, and Darryl Johnson, an African-American — work alongside Jahira Fragozo, who is of Miskito and Yaqui Indian descent. Ms. Johnson bonds with a customer, Hillory Robinson, who is black, over the challenges of motivating their children in the winter. “They need something to do,” Ms. Robinson says. Ms. Johnson gushes a short time later...

Police have made arrests in the deadly stabbing of a little league coach in San Jose. Robert Ruiz, 32, and Aaron Vallejo, 24, both of San Jose, were arrested Sunday in connection with the death of Frank Navarro, according to police. Around 12:06 a.m. officers responded to reports of a stabbing in the area of 83 S. 2nd Street near a bar called Tres Gringos Cabo Cantina, where the victim worked. Navarro was found suffering from a stab wound. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office sealed the statement of facts on the case, and Deputy District Attorney Lance Daugherty...

A 41-year-old North Bay man with a felony criminal record attempted to assassinate two Vallejo police officers on a coffee break Sunday night, but his modified assault rifle jammed, police officials said Monday. The officers ultimately chased Adam Powell, who was wearing body armor, out of the Starbucks on Lincoln Road and shot him three time as he continued to fiddle the weapon — shutting down what police said could have been a bloodbath.

Vallejo Police officers at the scene of a shooting in Vallejo, Calif. on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016. Police said two officers were inside a Starbucks coffee shop on Lincoln Road West when a man with an "assault style weapon" opened the Vallejo police shot a suspect who pointed an assault-style weapon at officers at a Starbucks on Sunday night, according to the Vallejo Police Department. Police say the incident started at a Starbucks near Lincoln Road and Pine Street in Vallejo at 8:50 p.m. on Sunday night. Police said a male suspect opened the door of the Starbucks and pointed...

Four suspects were arrested Friday night and Saturday morning in connection with kidnapping a woman and holding her for ransom. The Vallejo Police Department was contacted July 1 by John Babb, 36, of San Francisco, who reported his mother, Elvira Babb, 57, of Vallejo, was kidnapped, explained Lt. Jeff Bassett. Babb said he received a text June 30 from an unknown number, advising they had his mother and demanding cash. Police say the caller also threatened to kill Elvira if Babb contacted the police or did not produce the money.

Dozens of people fanned out Saturday to continue looking for a 15-year-old California girl who was abducted by a 19-year-old man, later shot dead by police. Search teams are focusing on an area near the Northern California town of Jenner. It's about 65 miles from where a witness saw Pearl Pinson abducted at gunpoint from a pedestrian bridge near her home in the Bay Area community of Vallejo on Wednesday morning. "She was forced into that car," Rose Pinson said through tears Friday, desperate to find her younger sister.

A study newly released by the California-based law offices of Graham Donath lists Vallejo as the fourth most dangerous city in the state. The list was determined after comparing a number of factors, including 2014 crime rates, investment in police presence, community risk factors and geopolitical issues. Coming in ahead of Vallejo was Modesto, which was ranked third most dangerous. Stockton took second place and San Bernadino took the uncoveted honors of first place. Oakland was ranked the sixth most dangerous city in the study despite having the largest amount of violent crimes. For every 100,000 residents, 1685 violent crimes...

A Vallejo man, Richmond police officer and active community member was fatally shot at his home in the Glen Cove neighborhood early Thursday. Vallejo police said Augustine “Gus” Vegas, 58, was killed after being shot multiple times inside the house. Vegas was a 15-year veteran with the Richmond Police Department, and last served in the regulatory unit. The suspect, identified as Robert Vega, 30, of Fairfield, has been taken into custody and is the father of Vegas’ 6-year-old grandson. The shooting was reported by a family member at 4:39 a.m. in the unit block of Narragansett Court at the victim’s...

Police called it a hoax, while the victims said it was a traumatic ordeal — and on Monday, federal agents said the bizarre springtime kidnapping-for-ransom of Denise Huskins was indeed for real. Harvard Law School graduate and embattled attorney Matthew Muller, 38, of Sacramento County is suspected of the home invasion, kidnapping and sexual attack on the 29-year-old Vallejo woman, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed Monday. The case, as unusual as it is sensational, captured national attention as details of the saga — which included the kidnapping, a drugging of the boyfriend, and a paltry $8,500 ransom —...

RICHMOND — The arrest of a middle school teacher on suspicion of child sexual abuse this week has raised questions about the West Contra Costa Unified School District's hiring practices, because the teacher was hired while police were investigating him. Ron Guinto, 32, of Vallejo, was arrested about 7:45 a.m. Wednesday in the parking lot of Mira Vista Elementary School. The seventh-grade English and science teacher is expected to be charged with 11 counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 years old, two counts of forced oral copulation and one count of assault with intent to commit sodomy,...

Forbes put Detroit Mayor Dave Bing on its cover in 2011 for a story with the optimistic headline: “City of Hope.” The premise was that the city had hit rock bottom and was poised for a turnaround. “Right now, it’s all about survival,” Bing told Forbes. Two years later, Detroit’s problems continue to multiply, sadly. It is still dealing with high levels of violent crime and unemployment. Home prices, already at historic lows, plummeted a further 35% during the past three years to a median of $40,000 as net migration out of the city continued. The latest blow was Tuesday’s...

An impressive array of Tiffany stained glass and other religious art elements is showing at the Museum of Biblical Art in New York. To see it, you need to fly to the Big Apple before Jan. 20. Or make it a lot easier on yourself and stay in Northern California, instead driving a short distance to enjoy the astonishing collection of 25 Louis Comfort Tiffany stained- glass windows that illuminate Saint Peter's Chapel on Mare Island.