SF police won’t be charged in killing of Amilcar Perez-Lopez

Jesus Ruiz calls out during a protest on 24th Street on Feb. 26, 2016 marking the one-year anniversary of the death of Amilcar Perez-Lopez in San Francisco. Perez-Lopez was fatally shot by police. Jesus Ruiz calls out during a protest on 24th Street on Feb. 26, 2016 marking the one-year anniversary of the death of Amilcar Perez-Lopez in San Francisco. Perez-Lopez was fatally shot by police. Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close SF police won’t be charged in killing of Amilcar Perez-Lopez 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón declined to file charges against two police officers who killed a man in the Mission District more than two years ago, saying he found insufficient evidence supporting community advocates’ assertion that officers unlawfully shot the man in the back as he ran away.

The plainclothes officers said they had opened fire to protect themselves and others from a man who was acting erratically and was armed with a knife, according to a long-awaited report that Gascón released Wednesday.

The city medical examiner found that all six of the bullets that struck 21-year-old Amilcar Perez-Lopez came from the back or side. But Gascón wrote in his 25-page report that testimony from several witnesses and other evidence did not show “beyond a reasonable doubt that no legal justifications existed for the (officers’) actions” on Feb. 26, 2015.

The bullet wounds in Perez-Lopez’s back, Gascón concluded, may have been the result of Perez-Lopez quickly turning after the first officer decided to shoot. And even if that wasn’t the case, the officers are justified under the law to use deadly force not just in self-defense, but in defense of others, Gascón said — if he had been running away from the officers, he still would have been running in the direction of a man he had previously been chasing.

“We’re not disputing that he was shot in the back,” Gascón said at a news conference. “What we’re saying is given the totality of the circumstances, that does not make it an unlawful shooting.”

Advocates of Perez-Lopez called this reasoning a stretch and yet another effort “to give the officers the benefit of every doubt.” Arnoldo Casillas, who is representing Perez-Lopez’s family in a federal civil lawsuit against the city, has said the shots to the back are proof that Perez-Lopez was running away from men who failed to identify themselves as plainclothes officers, in particular to someone who could only speak Spanish. Not realizing they were cops, he tried to scare them and keep them back with the knife before trying to flee, Casillas said.

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“Here, because the killers were police officers, Mr. Gascón has shied away from his duty to do justice,” Casillas said. “It takes courage and a true commitment to justice to take on the police. It’s a shame that the district attorney would not carry out his duty to impartially apply the law.”

The district attorney has been under intense pressure not only to make a decision on whether to charge the officers in this case, but also to clear a backlog of 10 additional fatal shootings by police in San Francisco. The Perez-Lopez decision was the first that Gascón has made in a fatal police shooting in almost 26 months, even though such shootings prompted a U.S. Justice Department review of the city force.

The ruling also comes as Gascón seeks to take the lead role in investigating the shootings, supplanting inspectors in the Police Department in a move designed to combat potential conflicts of interest. The district attorney’s office now conducts a parallel probe, but it does not control the collection of evidence from the start.

In September, Mayor Ed Lee approved a final round of funding for a unit that would allow the district attorney’s office to take the primary role.

In the Mission District case, police Officers Eric Reboli and Craig Tiffe told investigators they were forced to open fire when Perez-Lopez threatened them and another man with a knife on the 2800 block of Folsom Street. They had been responding to a radio call reporting a man chasing another man with a knife when they came across Perez-Lopez and a man identified in the report as Abraham P.

Critics of police and advocates for Perez-Lopez have been skeptical of the police account since former Police Chief Greg Suhr, in the days after the shooting, presented what they considered to be a one-sided and inaccurate story from Abraham that Perez-Lopez had been trying to steal his bicycle.

Friends of Perez-Lopez, a recent immigrant from Guatemala seeking to earn money for his family, said Abraham had been bullying the smaller man, and had possibly stolen his cell phone before the shooting. Gascón said Perez-Lopez had a cell phone in his pocket when he was killed.

What is supported by witnesses and surveillance video, prosecutors said, is that Abraham encountered Perez-Lopez inside the gated area of the home Perez-Lopez shared with several people. Just before 9:45 p.m., Perez-Lopez began chasing Abraham down the street with a large silver knife, prompting a jogger to call 911.

Officer Reboli said he and Tiffe pulled up on the two men, who had paused near a parked blue Nissan. Reboli said he had been wearing his star on his belt and announced himself as a police officer when he grabbed Abraham by his arms in case he was the man with the knife. Tiffe went to speak to Perez-Lopez, Reboli said.

“A few seconds later, Officer Reboli glanced over again and saw Officer Tiffe trying to take Perez-Lopez down to the ground and Perez-Lopez ‘violently resisting,’” Gascón wrote in the report. Reboli ran to assist his partner and “‘saw a flash of a very large silver knife,’ and thought Officer Tiffe may have been stabbed.”

Tiffe said he had his police star on his chest, hanging from a chain outside his jacket, and that he too had announced himself as a police officer. But he “thought Perez-Lopez appeared to be in some type of altered state and described the look on his face as ‘bloodlust crazed,’” Gascón wrote.

The medical examiner determined that Perez-Lopez had a blood alcohol content of 0.19 percent at the time of his death, more than double the state’s legal limit for driving.

Tiffe said Perez-Lopez had swiped at him with the knife, prompting him to draw his pistol.

Reboli said he had fired to protect himself and his partner, while Tiffe said he had fired moments later as Perez-Lopez stepped between two parked cars. Tiffe said he believed Perez-Lopez was going after Abraham with the knife.

Reboli shot Perez-Lopez five times and Tiffe shot him once. According to the medical examiner’s report, five of the bullets struck Perez-Lopez back to front, and one struck him from left to right. The findings were consistent with an independent autopsy conducted at the request of Perez-Lopez’s family.

Charles Key Sr., a use-of-force expert retained by Gascón as part of the investigation, said it would not be unheard of if Perez-Lopez had faced Reboli when Reboli began to shoot, only to turn at the last moment and receive the shots in the back.

“Reboli may have accurately recalled that Perez-Lopez was facing him when he made the decision to shoot and started the process of taking the first shot, but based on action versus reaction time, Perez-Lopez would have been able to turn 90 to 180 degrees by the time the first bullet hit him,” wrote Key, a retired Baltimore police lieutenant.

In a brief statement issued Wednesday, the Police Department said, “We respect the district attorney’s decision and thank his office for its work on this investigation.”

Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who has led several rallies calling for charges in this case, said Gascón’s decision was disappointing.

“The fact that the district attorney endorsed a situation where a person was retreating and was shot sends a message that that kind of use of force will be tolerated,” Adachi said.

Martin Halloran, president of the Police Officers Association, said in a statement that while the district attorney’s decision “makes it clear that the responding officers are not guilty of any crime, there is no doubt that this incident was tragic for everyone involved.”

“We cannot let this pain be a wedge between us,” he said. “Instead, it should motivate us to work together as a community to prevent future tragedies from taking place.”

City officials feared angry protests in response to the decision, but as of Wednesday evening, only a small group that holds a weekly vigil outside Mission Station for Perez-Lopez had assembled.

“We expected they would get off, because all of these police officers get off, but it still hurts,” said protester Carol Jean Wisnieski.

Chronicle Staff Writer Michael Bodley contributed to this story.

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo