Autopsy finds single police shot killed unarmed SF woman

Vigil attendees wove flowers into a barbed wire fence where Jessica Williams, 29, crashed an allegedly stolen car into a utility truck before she was shot by a San Francisco police sergeant on May 19, 2016. Vigil attendees wove flowers into a barbed wire fence where Jessica Williams, 29, crashed an allegedly stolen car into a utility truck before she was shot by a San Francisco police sergeant on May 19, 2016. Photo: Kimberly Veklerov Photo: Kimberly Veklerov Image 1 of / 30 Caption Close Autopsy finds single police shot killed unarmed SF woman 1 / 30 Back to Gallery

Jessica Williams, the apparently unarmed woman whose fatal shooting by San Francisco police in May led to the resignation of then-Chief Greg Suhr, died of a single shot to the chest, according to the medical examiner’s autopsy report.

Williams, 29, was in a parked Honda on Elmira Street near the Bayview District on May 19 when a passing patrol car equipped with a roof-mounted license plate scanner identified the car as possibly being stolen.

As Sgt. Justin Erb approached the Honda, it suddenly accelerated forward, crossed the street and hit a parked truck, police said. The car backed up, then hit the truck a second time and became wedged between it and a fence.

Erb “discharged an unknown number of rounds into the vehicle, striking the subject,” the medical examiner’s report said.

Williams was hit in the chest. She also suffered a graze wound on her left forearm, but the medical examiner’s office would not comment on whether that was from a second bullet or from the one that hit her chest.

Police said an initial search of the car did not turn up a gun, and authorities have never elaborated on why Erb opened fire.

Williams, who was African American, was the third victim of a controversial police shooting in less than six months. By the end of the day she was shot, Suhr had submitted his resignation.

William moved to San Francisco as a teenager and, according to the medical examiner’s report, had no fixed residence. The report said her mother in Sacramento told investigators that Williams had “a history of car theft and evading police.”

The report found traces of methamphetamine in her blood, but did not specify whether Williams was intoxicated when she was shot.

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