Ronell Foster

Ronell Foster, 33, a father of two, was shot and killed by Vallejo, California Police Officer Ryan McMahon on February 13, 2018, after McMahon tried to stop him for riding his bicycle without a headlight. Foster fled on foot after a chase; McMahon Tased him twice without effect, struck him repeatedly with a metal flashlight — including at least one blow to the head, which McMahon later admitted was a use of deadly force — and, after Foster grabbed the flashlight, shot him seven times, including once in the head and four times in the back. The Solano County District Attorney's Office cleared McMahon of criminal charges in January 2020, nearly two years later, finding the shooting justified. McMahon was the same officer who, thirteen months after killing Foster, was one of six Vallejo officers who fired 55 rounds at Willie McCoy in a Taco Bell drive-thru. No one has ever been charged in Foster's death.

Vallejo, CA · Solano County

• 2018: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The bicycle stop, the pursuit, and the shooting, per McMahon's own sworn deposition in a subsequent civil lawsuit and body camera footage released by police.
• McMahon Tased Foster twice, without apparent effect, then struck him with a metal flashlight — including a blow to the head that McMahon later acknowledged in his deposition constituted deadly force — before shooting him seven times.
• The Solano County District Attorney's Office announced in January 2020 that it could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that McMahon's use of force was not justified, citing his account that Foster grabbed the flashlight and presented it in a threatening manner; body camera footage did not clearly show that alleged threat, per contemporaneous reporting.
• Internal Vallejo Police Department reviews reached conflicting conclusions: the internal affairs sergeant who investigated initially cleared McMahon of policy violations, while both the department's deputy chief and interim chief who ordered a later review disagreed.
• McMahon was the same officer involved in the February 2019 fatal shooting of Willie McCoy, and was ultimately fired in 2020 specifically for unsafe conduct during the McCoy shooting — not for his conduct in Foster's death.
• The City of Vallejo settled a wrongful death lawsuit with Foster's family for $5.7 million, reported as the largest settlement in the city's history at the time.

• Whether Foster in fact “presented” the flashlight in a threatening manner sufficient to justify deadly force, as McMahon claimed, was disputed by a witness account cited in the family's lawsuit and was never resolved by any criminal proceeding.
• Why internal department reviewers reached opposite conclusions about whether McMahon's conduct violated policy has not been fully reconciled in public reporting.
• Why the same officer was permitted to remain on active duty after this shooting, going on to participate in the fatal shooting of Willie McCoy thirteen months later, has not been addressed in any official public accounting beyond his eventual firing over the McCoy incident specifically.

• ProPublica — “Vallejo Police Killing Investigations”
• San Francisco Chronicle — “Vallejo police killing of Ronell Foster justified, says Solano County district attorney”
• Vallejo Sun — “Vallejo police killing of Ronell Foster led to internal conflict, newly released records show”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs