District attorney declines to prosecute officers involved in 2015 and 2016 shootings that sparked outrage in the city

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

San Francisco prosecutors said they would not charge officers in two shooting deaths, including the killing of a black man that led to citywide protests three years ago and federally recommended police reforms.



The district attorney, George Gascón, declined on Thursday to prosecute five officers who fired at Mario Woods, whose 2015 killing led to large demonstrations amid nationwide upheaval over police shootings of black men, and two officers who shot Luis Góngora Pat in 2016, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Both men had knives, prosecutors said, and there was insufficient evidence that the officers did not reasonably act in defense of themselves and others.

Gascón expressed frustration over the high-profile cases that brought national attention, saying he did not believe the officers should have killed the men but he was bound by law not to press charges.

In the Woods case, prosecutors said, cellphone videos showed the suspect was not directly threatening officers with the knife when they fired 26 rounds at him.

“To the Woods family and the Góngora family, there are not enough words that I can say that are going to bring their loved ones back,” Gascón said. “I’m very sorry they lost a son, they lost a brother, a friend, because I don’t believe that was necessary.”

The life and death of Luis Góngora: the police killing nobody noticed Read more

Jeff Adachi, the city’s elected public defender, decried Gascón’s charging decision as “mind-boggling” and indicative of a double standard.

“To date, not a single officer in San Francisco has ever been criminally charged as the result of shooting a citizen, yet citizens are charged with crimes every day despite prosecutors being unable to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said in a statement. “A hail of bullets is not an appropriate police response to people suffering mental health crises.”

The San Francisco Police Officers Association, the union representing officers, said on Twitter that its officers “value the sanctity of life above all else”.

“When force is used it must be reasonable and within the confines of the law,” the tweet said. “DA George Gascon’s investigation has drawn that conclusion.”

The killings, which happened four months apart in a city that prides itself on diversity, increased tension between the police department and many of the communities officers are assigned to protect, the newspaper said.

Woods, 26, was African American, and Góngora, 45, was a Mexican immigrant. Their deaths came as police killings of black men stirred racial tensions nationwide.

At the time of his death, Góngora was homeless and living in a tent in San Francisco’s Mission district. Though no organization tracks police brutality against the homeless, a Guardian review found that at least 13 of the 1,146 people killed by police in 2015 were homeless, making the homeless 6.5 times more likely to be killed by police than the rest of the population.

The fatal shootings were among several by police in the city within a short period, leading the former police chief Greg Suhr to resign and San Francisco to ask the US justice department to conduct a review of the department and its policies.