On August 31, 2023, the surviving sisters of Sean Monterrosa, Ashley and Michelle, gathered on the steps of Vallejo’s City Hall, after news broke that Jarrett Tonn — the Vallejo police officer who killed Sean in a Walgreens parking lot in June of 2020 — was being fully reinstated by the Vallejo Police Department after winning his arbitration appeal.
“As many of you guys know, from June 2, 2020, Ashley and I have had to put our bodies on the line to bring attention to what happened in our brother’s case, but also what’s been happening here in the city of Vallejo, before Sean,” said Michelle. “There are many more families, beside our family, that I can count…that have been lied to, that have had evidence destroyed in our cases.”
In addition to demanding justice for Sean and for the other families who have been impacted by police violence in Vallejo, the Monterrosa sisters are encouraging people to show up and speak at public comment at Vallejo’s City Council meeting on Sept. 12. The sisters are also demanding the release of the report looking at the infamous Vallejo “badge-bending” scandal.
Lee Merrit, the civil rights lawyer who is representing the Monterrosa family, also attended the press conference.
“We’re here to overrule that decision,” said Merrit. “We’ve decided that as a community, that that decision cannot stand. And we will not allow Jarrett Tonn or any other terrorist to supervise our community.”
Trevor Starnes, a friend of the Monterrosa sisters, was also present to voice his support for the family. “The families that go through these situations, through state-sanctioned violence, they can’t really heal when these kind of things happen,” said Starnes. “It’s disheartening.”
