‘AN INEXCUSABLE TRAGEDY’

Bodycam Footage Shows Four Cops Shooting Two Men Fighting on the Ground

Police insisted they attempted non-lethal deescalation tactics prior to firing their weapons.

Bodycam footage released on Friday shows San Francisco officers firing numerous times at two men who had been fighting on the ground on May 19, both of whom died from their injuries. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, police had been responding to a 911 call about one man “beating the crap” out of the other. When they arrived, officials said, they found that both men were wielding knives as they fought each other. Police said they used verbal warnings and non-lethal attempts to de-escalate the situation, but when one man “suddenly climbed over the top” of the other and twice made a “stabbing motion,” four cops started shooting. San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Alexandra Pray, who once represented one of the men, called the deadly encounter “an inexcusable tragedy.”