Agustin "Augie" Gonsalez

Agustin “Augie” Gonsalez, age 29, was shot dead on 15 November 2018 by two Hayward cops—Phillip Wooley and Michael Clark. They fired 13 rounds into him just seven seconds after arriving at his location. Their pretext? They claimed they saw a “glint of metal” in Gonsalez’s hands which they took to be a knife posing “an immediate threat.” Far from being a threat, Gonsalez, 15 feet away, was holding a small razor blade with two hands at waist level and arms outstretched as if he was about to cut himself. Gonsalez struggled with depression and sometimes engaged in “cutting,” a form of self-injury to cope with intense emotional pain.

Gonsalez, father of two children, worked full time at the Tesla factory in Fremont. He had taken the day off to visit an ex-girlfriend in Hayward. They had an argument, and a neighbor called 911 claiming that a man was acting erratically and had a knife. When the police arrived, the neighbor, the ex-girlfriend and Gonsalez were outside on the street.

After Gonsalez’s death, the police and city stonewalled the family for three days before giving them any information about his whereabouts. An Alameda County DA report issued six months later outrageously concluded that Gonsalez was suicidal and thereby engineered his own death. A wrongful death lawsuit by the family resulted in a monetary settlement of $3.3 million by the city of Hayward in 2021, but the cops have never been charged. Augie’s cousin and close friend, Cynthia Nuñes, fought for justice for Augie for years and has endorsed OPA.

Open all police archives! We call for the release of all statements, including texts and emails, made by officers Wooley and Clark, along with the 911 calls and all recordings (audio and video) about the incident. Along with all incident reports and any witness statements, Gonsalez’s family and the public need to see the two cops’ personnel records, including from any prior police agencies the cops worked.