‘I Don’t Care!’: College Athlete Shot Seconds After Disarming a Gunman Secures Settlement as the Cop’s Racist Texts Surface and the Shooting Suddenly Looks Different
There is no question K’aun Green acted heroically when he pried a gun from the hands of a man threatening to shoot up a taco joint in Northern California in 2022, then walked out backwards holding the gun in the air to show police he was not a threat. But the 20-year-old Black college football player from Contra Costa College was shot four times within seconds by San Jose police officer Mark McNamara, who bragged about the shooting the following day in text messages to fellow cops, referring to Green as a “n_gger,” and months late acknowledging, “I hate Black people.” Now Green is set to accept an $8 million settlement after two courts denied qualified immunity to McNamara. K'aun Green, bottom left and far right, was shot four times by San JosePolice Officer Mark McNamara, left, after Green pried a gun out of the hands of a gunman terrorizing customers inside a taco shop. He will now receive an $8 Million settlement. (Photo: KTVU Fox 2 and Pointer & Buelna LLC) The San Jose City Council is expected to approve the settlement during its next meeting on Jan. 13 meeting, thereby avoiding the risk of going to trial and being stuck with a much higher payout. “This is a negotiated settlement between the parties to avoid the risks inherent in litigation,” City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood wrote in a memo to the City Council, according to The Mercury News. ‘It’s Disgraceful’: Louisiana Mom Outraged After Lactose-Intolerant 6-Year Girl Forced to Clean Up Own Feces After School Gives Her Milk McNamara, who had no shame in his racism, was forced to resign in November 2023 and does not appear to be working anywhere as a law enforcement officer. “Hours after shooting K’aun Green, Defendant McNamara proceed to text with fellow SJPD officers referring to K’aun Green (as) n-word and using other racial slurs to describe him,” according to the lawsuit filed after the shooting by attorneys Adante Pointer, Patrick Matthew Buelna and Angel M. Alexander of the Pointer & Buelna law firm in California. “Defendant McNamara also joked about shooting K’aun Green and wanting to shoot more,” the attorneys wrote. “Defendant McNamara likened the City of San Jose to the old West’ and implied that he shot K’aun Green simply because K’aun is black and possessed a firearm.” McNamara tried his hardest to get the case dismissed on qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that protects cops from liability unless it can be proved they violated a “clearly established” right. But he was denied qualified immunity by a lower court judge, then appealed it and was denied again by the appellate court in September 2025, which was when the city realized they would not be able to escape accountability. “A reasonable jury could find that McNamara violated Green’s Fourth Amendment right not to be subjected to excessive force by shooting him as he surrendered,” the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote in its decision. “Police officers do not act reasonably when they shoot an armed individual who is surrendering or who does not pose an immediate threat.” Watch the video of the shooting below. The Fight The incident took place around 3 a.m. on March 27, 2022, inside La Victoria Taqueria in downtown San Jose. Green was inside the restaurant, which stays open late, along with numerous other people when he was approached by an intoxicated man who punched Green in the face, sparking a fight between the two men. They were on the floor wrestling and fighting when another man who was friends with the intoxicated man pulled out a gun and pointed it at Green’s head as well as other customers inside the restaurant, according to the claim. Green pried the gun out of the man’s hands and began backing away from the men including a third man who was also friends with the other two. Green held the gun over his head in his left hand while trying to keep the men away from him with his right hand while backing out towards the front door of the restaurant. Meanwhile, about five to seven San Jose cops were responding to the fight inside the restaurant when they spotted Green walk out the door with the gun in the air. Police had been responding less than a mile away of a homicide that had been reported minutes earlier. “Drop the gun!” several cops, including McNamara, yelled toward Green. But McNamara never gave him a chance, firing five shots within three seconds, with four bullets striking Green. The other cops never opened fire, evidently not fearing for their safety. According to the claim: Defendant McNamara never warned K’aun he would shoot or even provided him any opportunity to comply with the orders to drop the gun before firing. In fact, surveillance captured K’aun Green in the act of complying with those orders – dropping the gun and raising his hands in surrender – when Defendant McNamara inexplicably shot him four times simultaneous to those orders while the five other SJPD officers standing beside him tellingly never opened fire – because they saw him complying or were giving him the opportunity to comply. Certainly those five officers did not perceive an immediate threat of serious bodily harm from K’aun that merited discharging their firearm despite standing right next to Defendant McNamara. Green remained handcuffed to a hospital bed for two days with injuries to his arm, knee and abdomen while police refused visits from his family. They even had to remove a portion of his intestine. San Jose police also prohibited Green from calling his mother after the shooting even though he begged them to do so, and she only learned of the shooting through one of his friends. “Only after reports from various media outlets that the officers shot the wrong person did the San Jose Police Department feel compelled to explain why they shot the hero, not the gunman,” the claim states. At the time of the incident, Green told told KGO-TV he willed himself to survive. “I try to stay strong for my mom and my pops, my whole family. I refused to die.” Green, now 24, was able to recover and is now playing defensive end for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, a historically Black college that gave him a full scholarship. ‘I Hate Black People’ McNamara, who had worked for the San Jose Police Department since 2017, was not wearing a body camera when he shot Green. He was being investigated by internal affairs for an unrelated incident when investigators discovered about two dozen racist and arrogant text messages with other officers about the shooting of Green. “N-gga wanted carry a gun in the Wild West,” wrote McNamara on March 28, the day after the shooting. “Not on my watch ha ha.” Then on June 23 after he was being investigated for the shooting, he texted his disdain for the criminal justice system, believing it was stacked against him because he was white. I finally had to tell this city attorney what's what. He keeps texting me asking sh-t. I'm like dude, I don't give a sh-t about this case. I'm white, he's black, he's gonna win. AND I DONT CARE. It's like b_tch whatever they decide has no bearing on me what so ever. It's basically kangaroo court. The other day this nigs lawyer is like mr McNamara, you know we can still find you guilty of excessive force right?! I'm like, hmmm yeah then shat happens?? Nothing?? Cool. Cuz I'm pretty sure the district attorney would have charged me if I used excessive force, but she didn't, because l didn't use excessive force. Think give a f-ck what y'all nigs think?!???? I'll shoot you too!!!!! The arrogant cop claimed to have done Green a favor by shooting him because it would enable him to walk away with a huge settlement, There was like 65 African lookin mother f_ckers there too. All just mean mugging me and taking notes. They should all be bowing to me and brining me gifts since I saved a fellow nigga by making him rich as f-ck Otherwise he woulda lived a life of poverty and crime And on July 19, he texted that, “I hate Black people,” referring to Green’s attorneys seeking $10 million in damages. “If any employee's racial bias rears its ugly head, rest assured that I will take immediate action to ensure they are not part of this organization,” San Jose Police Chief Anthony Mata said in a press release on Nov. 2, 2023, where he announced that McNamara is no longer working for the department. McNamara was also stripped of his law enforcement certification in California and does not appear to be working as a cop in any other state at this time.
