San Francisco Police Shoot, Kill Stabbing Suspect
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - San Francisco police officers on Wednesday shot and killed a man who had allegedly stabbed another man minutes earlier in the Bayview District, authorities said.
Officers went to the area Wednesday afternoon to check on a report of a stabbing. A man who had been stabbed in the shoulder told police his assailant was still in the area, the San Francisco Chronicle reported (http://sfg.ly/1Qg6163).
They found the man still holding what appeared to be a large kitchen knife. Several officers surrounded him at gunpoint and ordered him to drop the knife, police said.
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Police Chief Greg Suhr told the Chronicle officers first shot the man with lead-filled beanbag pellets. The man fell and got up again and approached one officer still holding the knife and that's when officers opened fire, killing him, he said.
Suhr said he did not know how many shots the officers fired and that the man "had already demonstrated, by committing a felony aggravated assault, that he was a danger to others, so, he could not be allowed to move away from the scene."
The San Francisco Police Department didn't immediately return calls seeking comment Wednesday.
Suhr said a video recorded by a bystander from inside a bus and published in social media confirmed the suspect "does have the knife in his hand and he does move toward officers."
The video shows a man bent over and holding his left hip with his left hand as he is surrounded by at least six police officers with their guns drawn. He is seen standing up and gesturing to police officers before starting to wobble away from some officers. A woman standing in front of the person recording the video can be heard shouting "Just drop it! Just drop it, please!" The man continues walking away as one officer steps in front of him, walking backward while pointing his gun at him. Seconds later the camera turns away as what sounds like at least 15 gunshots are fired amid the screams of bystanders.
Police didn't immediately identify the dead man.
The 2011 shooting death of Kenneth Harding by police in the city's troubled Bayview District sparked protests after the community reacted with anger to a video that showed the 19-year-old bleeding helplessly in the middle of a street while police stood around him with guns drawn and a crowd gathered.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.