Family calls on State AG to charge former SFPD officer in 2017 fatal shooting of carjacking suspect
SAN FRANCISCO -- The family of an unarmed black man who was fatally shot by a San Francisco police officer after an alleged car jacking over four years ago is calling on the state attorney general to take up charges against the officer.
Protesters held a rally outside Caliornia Attorney General's Rob Bonta's office in San Francisco Monday.
They want him to prosecute former SFPD officer Chris Samayoa, who fatally shot Keita O'Neil after an alleged carjacking in 2017.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins moved to dismiss the case last week.
O'Neil, who died at a hospital, was suspected of assaulting a California Lottery employee and stealing a van that belonged to the agency. Police said they chased the van and another SUV seen traveling with it to a public housing area. O'Neil abandoned the stolen vehicle and started running toward the patrol car occupied by Samayoa, who was in the passenger seat, and his training officer.
Body camera footage shows Samayoa drawing his pistol while the cruiser was still moving. The video then shows him opening the side door and firing a single shot through the window as O'Neil runs by in the opposite direction.
An attorney for O'Neil's family, Brian Ford, recently called Jenkins' decision to drop the charges "shameful and cowardly."
"She is more interested in protecting murderous cops and attacking Boudin than in seeking justice for the citizens of San Francisco," Ford told the newspaper. "But it means that Attorney General Rob Bonta has all the more duty to investigate and take up the prosecution of Christopher Samayoa for the murder of Keita O'Neil."
Bonta has until Tuesday to decide if his office will take the case over.
"It's harder to open a dismissed case, but if you already have a case that's alive and moving, all you gotta do is take it," said O'Neil's aunt April Green.
If the case does move forward, it will likely be the first time an SFPD officer will ever be prosecuted for an on-duty killing.
