Joel Anderson
The four San Francisco Police Department officers who fatally shot a 28-year-old Hispanic man in March 2014 did not use excessive force, a civil jury found Thursday, denying the man’s family monetary damages in his death.
Alex Nieto was gunned down March 21, 2014, in Bernal Heights Park where he’d gone to watch the sunset and eat a burrito and potato chips before heading to his job as a security guard. Police officers were called to the park just after 7 p.m. when they received reports of a Hispanic man in a red jacket with a gun.
Officer Richard Schiff and Lt. Jason Sawyer said they pulled into the park in their patrol car and saw Nieto in the distance with a bulge on his right hip. The officers said they stopped their car in his path — about 100 feet away — and got out with their guns drawn, telling Nieto to show his hands.
The officers then claimed that Nieto said, “no, show me your hands” and then reached for the weapon under his jacket.
The cops fired at Nieto a number of times, and were soon joined by Officers Nathan Chew and Roger Morse, who also fired. Nieto's attorneys said the cops fired 59 bullets at him.
Nieto died at the scene. Officers soon discovered that the unknown bulge on his hip was a Taser he was issued for work — and not a gun. No witnesses at the trial corroborated the officers’ claims that Nieto said anything to them before hearing gunfire.
“It was a very difficult case,” one of the jurors said after the verdict. “We did the best we could.”
The jury’s verdict came just after noon Thursday, about eight total hours after they began deliberations.
The eight-person jury — which included five white women in a county that’s nearly 54% white, according to the 2010 Census — ultimately ruled that the four officers didn’t violate the constitutional rights of Nieto or his parents.
Nieto’s case made San Francisco a recent — and somewhat surprising — addition to the list of U.S. cities roiled by racial unrest and accusations of police using brutal and excessive deadly force against black and brown citizens.
“This is a sad day,” said Adante Pointer, attorney for Nieto’s family. “But it’s an even worse day for the citizens of San Francisco.”
Long known for its progressive politics and diverse population, San Francisco has nonetheless faced mounting criticism that its police department bears the same sort of scrutiny as those in Baltimore, Chicago, New York, and Oakland.
The death of Mario Woods — who was shot more than 20 times by five officers who claimed he was wielding a knife in a threatening manner — sparked weeks of protests and demonstrations around the Bay Area. In response, Police Chief Greg Suhr has asked the Justice Department to review SFPD’s policies and has already made changes to the department’s firearms training and policies. The department will also soon carry less-lethal devices, including protective shields and extended-range beanbag guns.
In a statement, SFPD said “we need to do everything we can to prevent this from occurring again,” referring to the Woods shooting.
Nieto’s death drew little attention outside of the Bay Area — it happened several months before Michael Brown’s fatal shooting by police officers in Ferguson launched a national debate about police violence.
The District Attorney’s Office announced in February 2015 that it wouldn’t bring criminal charges against the officers, relying in part on data from Taser International showing Nieto had fired his device at them. Nieto's lawyers disputed that data in court.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1QQff6F
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