Deputies in SF beating video say they feared for their safety

Two Alameda County Sheriff deputies are shown beating a man on a street in San Francisco's Mission District in a video screen grab provided by the San Francisco Public Defender's Office. Two Alameda County Sheriff deputies are shown beating a man on a street in San Francisco's Mission District in a video screen grab provided by the San Francisco Public Defender's Office. Photo: Coutesy Of San Francsco Public D Photo: Coutesy Of San Francsco Public D Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Deputies in SF beating video say they feared for their safety 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Two Alameda County deputies who tackled and repeatedly struck a fleeing car-theft suspect on a San Francisco street say he resisted arrest and posed a threat to their safety, according to police reports written by the deputies and made public Thursday.

The account by one of the deputies, Paul Wieber, written on Nov. 16, four days after the incident, maintains that 29-year-old Stanislav Petrov “used his arms and shoulders to attempt to push himself up from the ground.”

A surveillance video, which has been viewed thousands of times on social media, shows Wieber and fellow Deputy Luis Santamaria chasing down and tackling Petrov. The footage shows the deputies striking the suspect repeatedly with fists and a baton while he was face down on the ground.

Petrov was later treated at San Francisco General Hospital for broken bones and head cuts. The video does not appear to show resistance from Petrov once he is on the ground.

In a separate report of the incident that closely mirrored Wieber’s account, Santamaria wrote that Petrov “started to get up ... (and) fearing that Petrov was going to assault Deputy Wieber, I removed my collapsible baton. ... I struck Petrov several times on his upper left arm to gain his compliance.”

The police reports were released to a civil rights watchdog group, the Center for Human Rights and Privacy, which had requested them under the Freedom of Information Act.

The police reports also state that neither Wieber nor Santamaria, nor any of the nine other deputies responding to the incident, recorded it on video cameras attached to their police vests. The only footage of the incident came from a security camera in the area.

The incident began in the early morning hours of Nov. 12 in San Leandro after deputies said they spotted Petrov in a reported stolen Mercedes-Benz and attempted to pull him over. Petrov allegedly rammed two police cruisers, ignored deputies’ orders to surrender and led them on a high-speed chase through the East Bay and across the Bay Bridge, ending at the corner of Stevenson Street and Clinton Park in San Francisco’s Mission District.

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office released 22 police reports from deputies in connection with the incident, which remains under investigation by the San Francisco Police Department and the San Francisco district attorney’s office.

Petrov, according to deputies, had previously been arrested 19 times. Santamaria, according to public records, had been the subject of a 2014 out-of-court settlement in connection with accusations of excessive force in responding to a domestic disturbance incident.

In a statement, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi said the deputies’ description “does not match the surveillance video of the brutal beating.”

Adachi, whose office initially released the footage, said that the video camera was the “ultimate objective witness” and that it shows deputies “striking a man with their batons more than 30 times while he writhes helplessly.” The public defender said the deputies’ failure to turn on their body cameras was “an attempt to cover up their misconduct.”

Adachi called on San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón to file criminal charges against the deputies.

Michael Haddad, an Oakland civil rights attorney representing Petrov, said the video footage depicted “the worst beating since Rodney King” and said the two deputies used “similar, boilerplate language to try to create some plausible defense for why they struck Petrov in the head so many times.”

“You can see Petrov is not resisting. He’s lying prone on his stomach while he’s being beaten on the head,” Haddad said.

Haddad said he expects to represent Petrov in a civil suit for damages against the Sheriff’s Office, which he intends to file soon. He said Petrov suffered a concussion and will “never have full use of his hands again.”

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF