5 fatal shootings in California: Officers killed unarmed people in moving cars

A federal officer’s fatal shooting of a driver in Minneapolis has put a spotlight on cases in which officers have fired into moving vehicles.

Renee Nicole Macklin Good, 37, was killed Wednesday as she tried to drive away from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem alleged the woman “rammed” the officers with her minivan; no contact is apparent in witnesses’ videos. The ICE officer who fired the shots remained on his feet and began walking toward the van after it crashed.

In California, five cases of lethal force against an unarmed occupant of a moving car have been flagged for investigation by the state’s Justice Department since 2022. One of them was in the Bay Area.

The investigations are required by AB 1506, which mandates a state investigation of any shooting by a law enforcement officer that kills a person who was not carrying a deadly weapon. A report has been issued only for the first of the five cases involving a moving car.

The map above shows the approximate locations of the shootings.

1 / Darnell Trevon Travis | June 21, 2022, in Fontana

Travis, 26, a suspect in an illegal weapons sale, was a passenger in a car that Fontana police had blocked in a parking space outside a Jack-in-the-Box. When the occupants were ordered to get out of the car, the driver backed up and rammed a patrol car. Officer Alex Millan then yanked open the passenger door of the suspects’ car; at the same time, the car drove forward over the curb. The officer opened fire as the car pulled away, and Travis was shot once.

Millan later said he believed Travis was reaching for a handgun. No such weapon was found in the car or along the route that the suspects took as they fled.

The state Department of Justice issued a report on the incident in April 2025; it concluded that Millan “reasonably believed that deadly force was necessary to defend against imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to himself or others.”

2 / Tahmon Wilson | Aug. 18, 2023, in Martinez

Wilson, 20, was the driver of a car that Martinez police officers encountered outside a cannabis dispensary where an alarm had gone off. As the car drove away, four officers opened fire. Wilson was killed and his brother, in the backseat, was wounded.

The officers said Wilson’s car had hit an officer and was traveling toward others. A lawyer for the brothers’ family said the two were shot from behind. Three of the officers were later fired for misconduct associated with the Wilson case, but no final report has been made by city or state investigators regarding the use of deadly force.

3 / Luis Florez | July 10, 2024, in Los Angeles

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies pursued a man driving a Toyota Camry that had been reported stolen that morning in an unarmed carjacking. After the Camry crashed into a pole in the Pico-Union neighborhood of Los Angeles, the driver allegedly reversed into a patrol car, and four deputies opened fire.

4 / Juan Martin Avila Mercado | Sept. 11, 2025, in El Monte

El Monte police officers responded to an alleged domestic violence incident involving a couple in a car at a gas station. When the car rammed a patrol vehicle, an officer fatally shot the driver, police said.

5 / Hugo Fernandez De Lara, Dec. 31, 2025, in Fontana

Fontana police officers attempted to arrest a suspected drug dealer in a Taco Bell parking lot. He allegedly rammed his vehicle into police cars, and at least one officer fatally shot him.

Since AB 1506 took effect, in July 2021, 91 fatal shootings of unarmed people by California law enforcement officers have been flagged for state investigation. In at least 30 of them, police said they believed the person had a firearm but the object turned out to be an airsoft-type gun that shoots plastic pellets, a replica gun, or another item (phone, glasses case, TV remote control).

Map: California is investigating these fatal law enforcement shootings of unarmed people