#FireKillerCopMellone from Antioch PD

Justice4Luis has joined Antioch protesters in calling for the firing of Luis’s killer Ofc. Michael Mellone. Mellone has worked in 4 police departments and 3 counties in the Bay Area since 2002.

2002 Oakland—> 2003 Richmond—> 2005 Oakland —> 2006 Richmond—> 2010 Antioch—> 2012 San Francisco—> 2019 Antioch

We will be filing for SB1421 release of misconduct records for Mellone in all those counties to track his record of bouncing around the Bay evading justice. We currently know that in 2011 a civil lawsuit named him and 5 other officers in Antioch for abuse of force, among several other civil rights violations… Stay tuned.

Evader of Justice, Killer Cop on the Loose

Because of SFPD’s lack of public transparency, we learned until June of 2020, that on August 19, 2019 SFPD’s Internal Affairs Department recommended a 10-day suspension for Michael Mellone for improperly firing a bean-bag gun at Luis-Gongora Pat.

This would have been a historic suspension in the case of lethal use of force by an SFPD officer, but it was still less of a disciplinary action than the 45-day suspension recommended by the DPA (see below). Even worse, Internal Affairs appears to have concerted the handing down of this decision with Michael Mellone, who resigned a day earlier on August 18, and thereby avoided the execution of the suspension. Days later on August 24, Michael Mellone was working with Antioch Police Department.

We also learned belatedly that Steger had retired before the DPA’s decision. In other words, both of Luis’s killers exited SFPD before the disciplinary decisions were executed.

(6.14.2019) DPA finds officers at fault in slaying of Luis Góngora Pat and recommends suspension

The Department of Police Accountability of San Francisco investigates police misconduct incidents and makes recommendations to the Chief of Police and San Francisco’s Police Commission on disciplining officers.

On June 14, 2019, the DPA recommended that SFPD Officer Michael Mellone and Sgt. Nathaniel Steger be suspended for “neglect of duty” in the April 7, 2016, slaying of Luís Góngora Pat. The DPA had found that Mellone rushed in and escalated a calm situation, and violated almost every one of the department’s rules for using a shotgun with beanbag rounds, called an “extended-range impact weapon,” or ERIW. He didn’t make a plan with Steger, didn’t call for an ambulance, didn’t announce that he was about to fire the weapon, and shot all four beanbag rounds at the same area in an attempt to ” ‘shoot’ the knife out of Góngora’s hand, contrary to the training he received,” stated the DPA’s investigation.

“It was Mellone’s unilateral decision to escalate the force used and close the distance to Góngora that robbed the officers of the ability to create time and distance under the circumstances,” the DPA found, recommending a 45-day suspension. The DPA also recommended a 30-day suspension for Steger.

Luis Poot Pat, cousin of the deceased, spoke at the following Police Commission to demand that his murderers not only be fired, but disciplined.

The Police Commission ENTIRELY FAILED AT IT’S ONE JOB.

June 29 (above), July 22 (below)