Fatal LAPD shooting of homeless man was unjustified, police commission says

Witnesses challenge San Francisco police account of homeless man's killing

Police department maintains man was ‘waving a large knife’, but witnesses say he was not threatening the officers before he was shot dead



Julia Carrie Wong in San Francisco
@juliacarriew

Thursday 7 April 2016 18.28 EDT
Last modified on Tuesday 12 April 2016 08.40 EDT


The San Francisco police chief’s account of the fatal shooting of a homeless man on Thursday was immediately challenged by two eyewitnesses, who said that the victim was not threatening police officers before he was killed.

The SFPD chief, Greg Suhr, said that police were called to a homeless encampment in the city by members of San Francisco’s homeless outreach team who reported a “suspect waving a large kitchen knife”.

Officers confronted a Latino man who refused their orders to drop his knife, even after he was shot four times with beanbag rounds, Suhr said.

The chief said the man then charged at the officers, and that two of them opened fire. Seven bullet casings were found at the scene.
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The man, who has not been identified, was transported to a local hospital and declared dead around 1pm.

However two witnesses, John Visor, 33, and Stephanie Grant, 31, who told the Guardian that they were less than 10ft away during the shooting, contradicted the police narrative.

“He didn’t charge at the officers. He was going in circles because he didn’t understand what they said,” Visor said. “He had a knife on him but he didn’t have it out. He had it on his hip, and when he hit the ground, that’s when it fell out.”

“They need to realize that some people don’t speak English,” Grant added. She also remarked on the speed of the encounter, saying: “They didn’t wait for anything. It all happened so fast.”
Witnesses John Visor and Stephanie Grant.
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Witnesses John Visor and Stephanie Grant. Photograph: Julia Carrie Wong for the Guardian

The pair said that the police officers had approached them first, before spotting the man they knew as “Jose”, who they said was sitting against a wall. They claimed that the man only began to stand up when the officers approached him.

“One of the officers had a shotgun and hit him with bean bags, then the sergeant pulled his gun and shot him,” Visor said.

Grant said she believed that one of the shots was “in the head”.

The shooting took place in a homeless encampment on a side street in San Francisco’s Mission District. About 10 tents line the east side of a street that features tech offices, an auto shop, a parking lot and apartments.

Visor and Grant, a couple, said that they have been living in one of those tents for about a month, since moving to San Francisco from Colorado about a month ago. Jose had lived in nearby tent, they said, after he lost his apartment in the neighborhood.

Visor said the shooting victim spent his time collecting cans and kicking a soccer ball. Asked why the man might have had a knife, he replied: “He carries a knife for safety. Everyone does.”

“I lost a best friend,” Visor added. “He was a really good friend. He never hurt nobody.”

Thursday’s shooting is the first fatal police encounter in San Francisco since the shooting of Mario Woods in December 2015.
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In the immediate aftermath of that shooting, Suhr also claimed that Woods had threatened police officers with a knife, but video of the shooting taken by a witness and released later appeared to contradict that claim.

Suhr and the police department have been the targets of intense criticism and protest since the Woods shooting. In February, the US Department of Justice agreed to begin a review of the department’s use of force policies at the request of the police chief and the mayor.

Last week, the scandal escalated when the city’s district attorney revealed that a second group of police officers were under investigation for exchanging racist and homophobic text messages.

Visor called into question the judgment of the police who opened fired.

“He needs to be suspended from the force,” he said of the officer who opened fire. “The sergeant should have called for backup, but instead he took it into his own hands.”
A view of the homeless encampment.
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A view of the homeless encampment. Photograph: Julia Carrie Wong for the Guardian

The victim was a familiar figure to neighbors.
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One woman who worked nearby began crying when she heard who the victim was. Farnaz, who asked not to be identified by her last name, said that she saw the man every day when she parked her car near his tent. The man frequently swept the street and sidewalk of trash, she recalled.

“My husband and I bring coffee and donuts to the homeless on Sunday mornings,” she said. “My husband and he would play soccer with my son.”

Another woman, who works at a tech company directly across the street from the site of the shooting, said that she had heard but not seen the shooting, and that the victim was very familiar to her.

“He’s on this block every day kicking a soccer ball,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified. “He never said a word. He seemed harmless, but definitely crazy,” she added, citing his tendency to run around the block.

Still, the woman said she never felt threatened by the residents of the homeless encampment.

“There’s so many homeless people on this block,” she said. “You get desensitized.”

If you have information about this incident please contact [email protected]

I lived on that block (Windward) for a while. Interesting block, it was.

But a block I wager, where nobody deserved to die like that.