City residents gathered this morning on the steps of the "Hall of Justice" demanding that officers of the San Francisco Police Department be charged with murder for shooting
Amilcar Perez Lopez in the back. According to witnesses, the young Guatemalan ran away from strange men who tackled him in the street -- those men turned out to be plainclothes cops. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon has been sitting on the case for 18 months.
Recently the D.A. told Fr. Richard Smith, speaking here, that the SFPD failed to notify his office there had been an officer-involved shooting, leaving his people to learn of the event on the evening news. Further, the SFPD directed the Medical Examiner to remove Amilcar's body before the DA's team could investigate the crime scene for possible criminal conduct. Our current interim police chief (the last one quickly retired after another unsupportable police killing in June) denies the D.A. said any such thing, but Smith preserved this message from Gascon:
The coalition seeking
Justice4Amilcar was joined by others calling out recent SFPD killings, including the parents of
Alex Nieto ...
... a cousin and a brother of
Luis Gongoro Pat ...
... religious leaders from
Faith in Action and a spokesperson the
Mario Woods coalition ...
... and Dr. Margaret Stafford of San Francisco General Hospital speaking for the
Do No Harm coalition of public health care professionals.
Still D.A. Gascon has not acted on police shootings ... how long must families wait? How long?
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