Open Vallejo30%
Vallejo officers in fatal July 20 shooting identified 8%
By Geoffrey King26%
7/30/2026, 9:40:15 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 22 faulty reasoning types, including Anecdotal, Post Hoc (False Cause), and Appeal to Authority, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 20.1% saturation with 220 hits. Analysis detected 1,059 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,094 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 21.8% and a BS Rank of 8% (21,909 of 23,687 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 92.50% of the article peer group.
Vallejo Police Sgt.
Matthew Komoda (left) and Ofc.
Himanshu Saini, sequestered by detectives, stand beside an unmarked vehicle after killing Rommel Delfin Querol on July 20, 2026 in Vallejo, Calif.
(Geoffrey King / Open Vallejo)
The Vallejo police officers who shot and killed a carjacking suspect last week also fired in the department’s two previous shootings, Open Vallejo has confirmed.
The Vallejo Police Department has not named the officers who fatally shot Rommel Delfin Querol, a 44-year-old Vallejo resident, at the dead end of Mahogany Drive in an industrial area of north Vallejo on July 20.
But an analysis by Open Vallejo has identified the officers as Sgt.
Matthew Komoda and Officer Himanshu Saini, who fired in the department’s November 2023 and August 2025 shootings, respectively.
Police allege Querol fired first with a rifle used in the carjacking.
It was the department’s first fatal shooting in more than six years.
Around 12:19 p.m. on July 20, Vallejo police received a 911 call reporting an armed carjacking in the 400 block of Ryder Street, according to a department press release.
Saini found the vehicle a little under an hour later, following it into the dead end of Mahogany Drive, according to dispatch audio.
He left his emergency lights off and asked for the location of the nearest backup officer.
Komoda arrived less than 30 seconds later, and the officers conducted a high-risk stop.
Fifteen seconds after that, Komoda reported shots fired.
“Shortly after the stop, the driver started shooting at the officers,” Vallejo police spokesperson Sgt.
Rashad Hollis told Open Vallejo at the scene of the shooting on July 20.
Komoda and Saini returned fire, striking Querol at least once, Hollis said.
The officers administered first aid until paramedics arrived and pronounced Querol dead at the scene, according to Hollis.
Bullets reportedly struck both vehicles in the alleged shootout; neither officer was injured, and police took the vehicle’s passenger into custody.
Both officers fired their weapons, Hollis told Open Vallejo on July 20, though he said he was “not at liberty to release the names.”
He declined to comment for this article.
The department placed Komoda and Saini on administrative leave, according to the press release, in line with Vallejo police policy.
The Solano County District Attorney’s Office’s Major Crimes Task Force, which leads criminal investigations of police shootings in the county, is conducting the criminal review.
The city has retained an independent investigator to conduct a separate administrative review, and a Vallejo police review board will examine the department’s tactics, training, and supervision.
As of publication, the department had not released audio or video of the shooting.
A rifle police allege Rommel Delfin Querol fired at two Vallejo police officers before they shot and killed him.
(Vallejo Police Department)
Komoda, who grew up in nearby Benicia, graduated from the Oakland Police Academy in 2006 and served with the Oakland Police Department, most recently in its School Safety Unit, before joining the Vallejo Police Department in 2014, according to a city newsletter announcing his hire.
The July 20 shooting is Komoda’s fifth as a Vallejo police officer.
In August 2016, he and Ofc.
David McLaughlin fired at and missed Marcus Anigilaje after he allegedly drove his vehicle at them.
The following year, Komoda was one of five officers — including McLaughlin — who fatally shot 45-year-old Jeffrey Barboa following a chase that ended in Contra Costa County; the officers fired approximately 50 rounds as Barboa walked slowly toward them while holding a knife over his head.
In November 2018, Komoda and two other officers chased Dominic Milano to Oakland, where they exchanged gunfire.
Milano survived.
In November 2023, Komoda shot and wounded 17-year-old Bryson Jones , who police said was armed , following a high-speed chase.
The department promoted Komoda to sergeant in 2024.
Komoda also participated in the department’s “Badge of Honor” ritual, in which a clique of Vallejo officers bent the points of their star-shaped badges to commemorate on-duty shootings .
Open Vallejo first revealed the ritual in July 2020.
Testifying in a Solano County criminal case in March 2022, Komoda said a supervisor, Kent Tribble, bent his badge in 2016 at The Relay Club, a bar near police headquarters.
A third-party investigation commissioned by the city later cleared Komoda of wrongdoing.
Saini joined the department as a trainee in October 2021 and was sworn in as an officer in May 2022, according to public records.
The July 20 shooting is his second in less than a year: on Aug.
29, 2025, Saini and Ofc.
Daniel Saravia shot and wounded 24-year-old Alexander Schumann after Schumann allegedly pointed a pellet gun at them amid an apparent mental health crisis at an East Vallejo apartment complex.
Schumann survived.
Vallejo Police Ofc.
Michael Gozony, who was not involved in the shooting of Rommel Delfin Querol, provides security at the scene on July 20, 2026 in Vallejo, Calif.
(Geoffrey King / Open Vallejo)
Vallejo police shot someone on average every four months between 2000 and 2020, often fatally, Open Vallejo research shows.
Prior to Querol’s death on July 20, the most recent fatal Vallejo police shooting occurred on June 2, 2020.
Det.
Jarrett Tonn, who is now a sergeant, shot 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa in the back of the head from the backseat of an unmarked police truck after allegedly mistaking a hammer in Monterrosa’s sweatshirt pocket for a gun.
Three days later, then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced a collaborative reform agreement with the department, which had drawn state scrutiny over the “number and nature” of its shootings.
No Vallejo officer shot anyone again until June 2023, when Ofc.
Brad Kim shot and wounded a man following an alleged gas station burglary, ending the department’s longest period between police shootings in recent history.
After the voluntary reform effort stalled , Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a pattern-and-practice lawsuit against the city in October 2023, leading to a settlement agreement that imposes sweeping reforms on the department.
The department will hold a community town hall regarding the shooting from 6 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 3 at Griffin Academy Middle and High Schools at 233 Hobbs Ave. in Vallejo.
The California Department of Justice makes such town halls mandatory, one of dozens of reforms the state agency has imposed on Vallejo police.
The department is expected to screen footage of the shooting at the meeting and to officially name the officers then, if not before.
The post Vallejo officers in fatal July 20 shooting identified appeared first on Open Vallejo .
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