(KRON) — Long chains of racist and homophobic text messages allegedly written by a former San Jose Police Department officer, Mark McNamara, were exposed in newly filed court documents.
McNamara is facing a federal civil rights lawsuit for the shooting of a Black man in 2022 who had just broken up a fight inside a crowded restaurant.
Half a dozen officers responded to La Victoria Taqueria on March 27, 2022, but McNamara was the only officer who decided to pull the trigger, attorneys said. College football star K’aun Green was shot four times and survived.
McNamara was allowed to resign from SJPD in November after earlier texts about the shooting came to light, attorneys said. In those, McNamara allegedly bragged about shooting Green, repeatedly used the N-word to describe the victim and his attorneys, and threatened to shoot the attorneys for accusing him of excessive force.
According to the lawsuit, text messages written by McNamara in June 2023 include one stating, “I hate black people more than I hate being a cop,” and another stating, “We gotta sculpt our bodies for the upcoming race war.”
A federal judge recently ordered the City of San Jose to release the new batch of McNamara’s text message exchanges to civil rights attorneys at Pointer & Buelna. The Oakland-based law firm representing Green added new court documents to the federal civil rights lawsuit that include text messages allegedly exchanged by McNamara.
In the messages, a second officer gripes about a young rookie officer who had requested time off from work to attend a gay pride parade. It’s unclear if the second officer was working for SJPD, or another police agency, at the time.
“Wanna hear the dumbest s**t in the world? He9s [sic] taking tomorrow off … which leaves us short handed … to go to a pride parade,” the officer wrote to McNamara.
“Yo he gay?!” McNamara replied.
“That n***a gay. Big time gay,” the officer wrote back.
Civil rights attorney Adanté Pointer said vial language and opinions written in the text messages expose the officer’s bias and prejudice against some groups in the community that he was sworn to protect and serve.
Pointer said, “These texts are not just offensive, they speak to the vile nature of how the officer viewed K’aun the night he nearly killed him – as just another Black man who was destined for a life of poverty and crime. K’aun was a college student and had never been convicted of a crime. This underscores the urgent need for comprehensive reform and accountability in our police departments.”
Green, a Contra Costa College quarterback, was eating at a popular taqueria when three drunken men started a fight with him. One of the men pulled a ghost gun and Green wrestled it away from him, attorneys said.
Green, 22, said he was attempting to protect other people inside the crowded restaurant. He tried to deescalate the situation by backing out of the restaurant while holding the gun out of the men’s reach.
San Jose police had gathered on the restaurant’s steps and had their weapons drawn when Green stepped outside, police body camera shows.
Police said McNamara opened fire because Green did not immediately cooperate with officers- orders to drop the weapon. The college student was never arrested nor charged with a crime.
Green previously told KRON4, “I feel like the hero of the situation.”
“I came out looking for help, seeking help from officers … people who are supposed to help me. And I was almost killed,” Green said. He survived after receiving emergency medical treatment in a hospital for four gunshot wounds.
The morning after shooting Green, McNamara texted another officer, “N***a wanted to carry a gun in the Wild West. Not on my watch haha,” according to the documents.
The officer who received that message is a current employee of the San Jose Police Department who has remained on administrative leave for months. The officer’s name has not been publicly released by city officials.
The lawsuit, Green vs. City of San Jose, was filed in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California last year.
In November, Police Chief Anthony Mata described the text messages exchanged between McNamara and current officer as “disgusting.”
A civil trial will be held in federal court this spring. McNamara described civil courts as “kangaroo courts” while he complained about the civil case against him, the suit states.
According to court documents, he wrote in a text message, “I don’t give a s**t about this case. I’m white, he’s black, he’s gonna win. AND I DONT CARE. It’s like b**ch whatever they decide has no bearing on me what so ever. It’s basically kangaroo court.”
The newly released text messages are detailed in court documents displayed below. (Warning: contains disturbing language and profanity.)
SJPD officials did not say if McNamara was fired from its police force, or if he was allowed to resign. Chief Mata said the bulk of the “disgusting” text messages were exchanged between McNamara and a former police officer who left SJPD in 2020. The former officer joined a new police department in a different state. San Jose police later alerted the out-of-state police department about its investigation into the text messages.
“It is our understanding that individual is no longer employed by that agency,” Mata wrote.
Mata said his police department has a “zero tolerance for even a single expression of racial bias.” Any officer who is discovered expressing racial bias will no longer wear an SJPD badge, he said. An internal investigation into the unnamed current SJPD officer is ongoing.
