Witnesses Dispute SFPD Story of Shooting

A Latino man who was reported to be carrying a knife in San Francisco’s Mission District was shot and killed by two police officers Thursday, the second fatal shooting of a minority suspect who was not carrying a gun since December. San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said the officers shot the man after he refused to drop a knife and was shot four times with nonlethal beanbags full of pellets. The officers also said the man charged at them before firing, Suhr said. However, The Guardian reports that two witnesses who were less than 10 feet away from the event don’t agree with the police account of what happened. “He didn’t charge at the officers,” one of them said. “He was going in circles because he didn’t understand what they 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,” the other witness added, commenting on how quickly everything was over, saying: “They didn’t wait for anything. It all happened so fast.” Suhr and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee have recently asked the Department of Justice to review the department’s procedures and policies after several protests.