By David M. Greenwald
Executive Editor
San Jose, CA – Civil Rights Attorney Adante Pointer, representing Contra Costa College sophomore quarterback K’Aun Green, who survived after being shot four times by Officer Mike McNamara in March of 2022, described the conduct of the officer after the shooting.
In a press conference on Sunday, Pointer detailed how the former San Jose Police officer bragged about shooting Green, repeatedly used the N-word to describe the victim and his attorneys, and said he would shoot the attorneys for accusing him of excessive force.
“Think I give a fuck what y’all nigs think?!???? I’ll shoot you too!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!!” Officer Mike McNamara wrote in a June 23 text exchange with a fellow officer following a deposition he gave as attorneys prepared a civil rights lawsuit resulting from the 2022 shooting.
“There was like 65 African lookin (sic) mother fuckers there too. All just mean mugging me and taking notes. They should all be bowing to me and brining (sic) me gifts since I saved a fellow nigga by making him rich as fuck. Otherwise he woulda (sic) lived a life of poverty and crime,” McNamara wrote in another text later in the conversation.
In his penultimate text, McNamara proudly declares “I hate black people.”
The officer’s texts were released by San Jose Police Department on Friday evening. McNamara has reportedly resigned from the department. The other people involved in the texts have not been named.
According to his attorney, the initial incident occurred when a group of three men, reportedly intoxicated, accosted Green inside a taqueria. One of the men pulled a ghost gun out, which Green wrestled away from him.
“Mr. Green was attempting to deescalate the situation by backing out of the restaurant 
with his hands in the air, holding the gun pointing up at the sky. With their weapons drawn, numerous officers ordered Mr. Green to drop the weapon when McNamara inexplicably shot him, giving him no chance to comply,” said Adanté Pointer, Green’s Oakland-based civil rights attorney.
“K’Aun Green is lucky to be alive today,” Pointer said. “Tellingly, McNamara was the only officer to shoot at Mr. Green as none of the other officers fired their guns.
“The conduct of now former Officer McNamara is beyond reprehensible, it is downright disgusting,” Pointer said. “Not only did he shoot to kill an innocent Black man, who was merely acting as a good Samaritan, but the recent revelations make it clear that his primary motivation in doing so was a hatred of Black people.”
As Pointer explained, “We get a glimpse into the mind of a police officer, this individual police officer. But we know from the evidence many other police officers who have betrayed their badge, who have betrayed their duty, who have betrayed the public, and they walk around with a deep seated hatred, racial animus in their heart, and we see it play out again and again and again in our communities on our streets. Sometimes that results in death.”
The text messages, Pointer argued, “is proof positive of the mind state of this police officer when he decided to use deadly force against Mr. Green, shooting him four times.”
As he points out, this is not someone committing a crime, this is a guy who “was a hero.
“Mr. Green, confronted with an armed gunman who was threatening to harm people within this restaurant, sprang into action much the same way we expect our officers to spring into action to protect us. He disarmed this gunman, kept the gun away from the people who meant to do those people in the restaurant wrong and harm,” he explained.
At this point, he turned around, sees then Officer McNamara along with several other officers, all lined up, yelling and pointing guns at him.
Green, Pointer explained, “maintained his composure, immediately dropped the gun, never pointed it at anyone, never threatened anyone with it, (did) not point it at police officers, did not point it at anyone in that taqueria in that restaurant that night.”
McNamara, “on his own acting as a lone wolf in this moment, opened out, opened fire on Mr. Green, shot him four times from close range. None of the other officers fired a single shot.”
McNamara then compounded it with his actions after the fact.
Pointer charged, “He contrived and concocted a story to say that he was afraid of Mr. Green and that’s what prompted him to open fire, that he was in fear for the people inside of the restaurant and therefore he had a legal justification to try to take this young man’s life.”
But he countered, “Now, we know by way of the text messages that was fake, that was a fabricated story, a concocted excuse to escape responsibility, to escape accountability, and to avoid ever having to see a criminal courtroom for what he did.”
Pointer explained “these were disgusting text messages, vile text messages, the type of comments, the type of sentiment, the type of deep-seated belief that defendant McNamara was carrying around with him played out on the streets of San Jose and it almost cost this young man his life.”
He noted that the fact that his fellow officers were okay with what he said and didn’t push back, “lets us know that the San Jose Police Department has a culture, has an environment, has a brotherhood and a sisterhood that embraces such racial animus to where racism of those carrying badges and guns not only survives in the San Jose Police Department, but thrives in that environment that is encouraging, promoting and embracing such crude barred and racist ways of looking at life.”
Pointer continued that “he felt comfortable enough to put that in his text message, he thinks that this is the wild wild west as if he is some cowboy, some deputized sheriff that is out to operate above the law, shoot, kill and exact street justice when and how he sees fit and particularly on black people.”
McNamara then became threatening to Pointer and his staff.
“He lets his fellow officer know that he’s done it once and he’ll do it again,” Pointer said. “His text message the other day, this nigga’s lawyer is like, Mr. McNamara, you know, we could still find you guilty of excessive force, right? I’m like, yeah, then shit happens. Nothing.”
Pointer said, “This is since he feels he’s above the law, we cannot have a two-tier system of law in this country at all.”
He says, because “I’m pretty sure the district attorney would’ve charged me if I used excessive force understanding that the system is going to cover for him. I didn’t use excessive force. Think I give AF what y’all nigs think I’ll shoot.”
And then he laughed.
Pointer said, “A not so thinly failed threat to shoot and to kill my legal staff, myself, the attorneys who are seeking to hold him accountable. This from a sworn officer of the law. It’s completely unacceptable. It’s out of line. And frankly, I take it as a criminal threat. This officer felt so comfortable in putting this into words. We do not have to guess. We do not have to speculate. There is no margin for error based upon his words as to his mind state and what he feels like and what he will do to shoot down and kill us for doing nothing more than protecting this young man’s rights and defending our Constitution.”
He explained, it doesn’t end there.
Pointer continues, “McNamara goes on, and this is more indication of his mind state of how he was patrolling our street with deep racial animus. He goes on to tell his fellow officer there were like 65 African looking MFS there too. Mind you, he sent this text message out right after he completed his deposition here, here in this conference room at my firm. And mind you, there weren’t 65 people in the conference room, but this is his perception. Three lawyers, African-American lawyers, he felt was a threat, a gang, a posse of 65.”
He said, “I wonder how many people he thought were holding a gun that night when he opened fire.”
Green spoke briefly at the press conference, and he said, “Honestly, it is hard to talk about it still, but it pretty much hurts me and it scares me to know how much hate a person can have in their heart, and to also know that no matter what I did, I was still going to be shot.”
Green said, “I went in there to help. I came out looking for help, seeking help from officers, people that are supposed to help me only to be shot and almost killed, and to also know that he didn’t even care or just he felt no way in his heart that he was wrong. It’s pretty scary for me and to also feel like he would’ve just finished the job or hurt anybody else around me. That’s also scary.”
Pointer added, “While we appreciate that the San Jose Police Department released the text messages, McNamara should not have been allowed to resign. Given his deep-seated racist beliefs, McNamara should never be given the privilege of carrying a badge and gun again, nor be placed in any position where those beliefs can be weaponized against Black people.
