Body Cam Footage Shows Officer Shoot Fleeing Suspect in North Beach
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- Police body-worn camera footage of a shooting in the city's North Beach neighborhood shows an officer firing at a fleeing suspect in a foot chase along a sidewalk crowded with bystanders.
The shooting happened around 12:15 a.m. Saturday in the 1300 block of Grant Avenue after two officers stopped a group of four men believed to be drinking alcohol at the corner of Grant and Vallejo.
In a video released Thursday during a community town hall meeting, one of the four men, identified as 28-year-old Oliver Barcenas, breaks from the group and begins running from a pursuing officer who holds his pistol in front of him.
When the video is slowed, police say it shows Barcenas dropping his jacket and pulling out a Glock .45 caliber automatic pistol with laser sights. The officer then fires and the man drops to the sidewalk as bystanders look on.
Barcenas remains in the hospital.
Several people at the town hall called the officer's actions careless.
As KPIX reported on Tuesday, Barcenas had been shot previously by police in 2012 in San Francisco's Mission District. In that incident Barcenas was accused of pulling an assault pistol on an officer.