The case of the police killing of Steven Taylor has dragged on for five and a half years in Alameda County, with charges that were originally filed two district attorneys ago, and the current DA is now looking to dismiss the case.

33-year-old Steven Demarco Taylor was fatally shot by police in the first month of pandemic lockdowns, in April 2020, at a Walmart in San Leandro. Police were called to the scene on a report of a robbery, but instead they found Taylor, who was in the midst of a mental health crisis, allegedly wielding an aluminum baseball bat inside the store.

Eyewitness video from the incident was posted at the time to Twitter but has since been removed — and the incident was witnessed by at least 20 people.

Taylor reportedly would not respond to police commands to drop the bat, and use of Tasers did not seem to subdue him. Then former San Leandro Police Officer Jason Fletcher shot Taylor, and Taylor was seen in the video walking away from officers and dropping the bat before collapsing.

Former Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley seemed to believe Fletcher had committed a crime and filed manslaughter charges against him, saying that he had failed to adequately attempt to de-escalate the situation before firing his weapon. And the case took on added weight one month later after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

But her successor, Pamela Price, was perhaps too vocal in her support of the prosecution of Fletcher, and in March 2024, a judge agreed with Fletcher's attorney and had Price's office removed from the case over bias. The case was then sent to the state attorney general's office, and has come back to Alameda County since Price recall.

Newly installed District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson says that there is not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Fletcher did not act in self-defense, and she thinks any prosecution is likely to fail.

As KTVU reports, activists and Taylor's family are outraged. Longtime Oakland activist Cat Brooks of the Anti Police-Terror Project tells the station, "It is egregious. It is vile. It is vicious. It is disgusting." And Brooks adds that Jones Dickson is being put "on notice," and "this is not the end of the conversation."

Addie Kitchen, Taylor's grandmother, joined in a protest in Oakland on Wednesday, and said to Jones Dickson, per KTVU, "We are going to continue to fight you."