SEE: Danville March, Vigil For Man Fatally Shot By Officer

DANVILLE, CA — Demonstrators convened in Danville Sunday to honor the life of Tyrell Wilson, the 32-year-old man who was shot dead by a local police officer earlier this month.

Wilson, who was homeless at the time of the shooting, succumbed to his injuries about a week after Danville police Officer Andrew Hall shot him on March 11. Hall has been placed on paid leave, per police policy.

On Sunday, demonstrators carried signs that read "Justice for Tyrell" and "Black Lives Matter." Wilson was Black; Hall appeared to be white. The crowd marched from the Sycamore Valley Road Park and Ride to the Danville Police Department.

Marchers knelt and blocked traffic in an attempt to bring awareness to police treatment of homeless people, KTVU reported.

The marchers were peaceful, KRON reported.

Wilson's father, who was a law enforcement officer for 30 years, spoke at the rally. De-escalation should be an officer's priority, he said, according to KRON. “He had people that cared about him and loved him, and I loved that boy to death," Wilson's father said, KRON reported.

The Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office, which contracts with the town of Danville to provide policing services, declined to comment to Patch.

The shooting occurred after Hall responded to a Danville intersection above an overpass after receiving reports that someone was throwing rocks at cars below, the sheriff's office said. The sheriff's office alleged that Wilson pulled a folding knife and approached Hall, who fired once and struck him.

Witnesses interviewed by Wilson family attorney John Burris told a different story: They denied that Wilson was holding a knife at the time, Burris said, according to KRON.

Hall has been investigated for use of force before. Hall pulled the trigger in a 2018 Danville incident that left Laudemer Atienza Arboleda, 33, of Newark dead after a brief slow-speed car chase. That shooting was the subject of a San Francisco Chronicle investigation published last month. Hall was cleared of wrongdoing, but four of six police use-of-force experts interviewed by the Chronicle felt that Hall was not justified in firing his weapon.

The experts were also alarmed to hear that an internal investigation by the county sheriff's office found no policy violations were committed in the confrontation that led to Arboleda's death, the Chronicle reported.

The Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office bars shooting at or from a moving car unless it's to defend someone's life, the newspaper reported.

Hall was also cleared of wrongdoing following a 2014 incident when he worked as a sheriff's deputy at the Martinez Detention Facility.

An inmate alleged that Hall "rammed him face first into the door" while handcuffed and "punched him several times in the face and side" before other deputies joined in punching and kicking the inmate until he lost consciousness, investigatory records showed. The inmate also told investigators that his lip had to be reattached as a result of those assaults, and Hall's knee was injured while trying to perform a hip toss on the inmate.

Hall and another deputy denied the inmate's claims and said Hall was injured while trying to perform a leg sweep takedown of the inmate who was resisting the deputies, investigatory records showed.

Read more at KRON.