S.F. Police Kill Teen After He Tried To Avoid Bus Fare

[The Straight Story]

S.F. Police Kill Teen After He Tried To Avoid Bus Fare

SAN FRANCISCO — Police killed a man after a routine inspection for tickets on the Muni light rail. The man ran away from police after the inspection and was later shot and killed.

While police claim the man was armed and shot at them, several witnesses reported that they did not see the man shoot at cops.

ABC 7 reports:

“We lost a life out here,” said resident Pladee Clayton. “That’s what everybody’s upset and everything, over an African-American couldn’t pay his fare.”
Police announced a break in the investigation on Sunday. After searching rooftops for a gun pointed at officers by the suspect, the answer may have come from a video posted on the website YouTube. The video shows police moments after the shooting and what appears to be a silver gun just feet from the suspect.


Blood in the video:
http://newsone.com/nation/casey-gane-mccalla/san-francisco-police-kill-teen-bus-fair/

The comments there are...well...wack.

[geomon666]

1. If he really did shoot at cops...

Was it worth ditching the bus fare?

[arcane1]

2. The surprising thing about this story:

That SFPD does fare checks!!!

[Gormy Cuss]

4. I know, that's weird!

MUNI has their own force of fare inspectors. It seems like there's always a team getting on trains at West Portal.

[pnwmom]

3. I'm reserving judgment on this, based on the history of this guy.

If he WAS involved in the death of the pregnant mother and the wounding of three others, then he was probably a time bomb waiting to go off. And there is the video . . . .

From the longer story at the link:

Police have not identified the 19-year-old suspect who was killed, but did confirm with ABC7 News that the suspect was a person of interest in a South Seattle shooting last week in Washington state. The shooting there wounded four people, including a pregnant woman who died from her injuries. Police also say the suspect had two felonies in Washington state and was currently on parole.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. More from SFGate paper:

Police officials said at a news conference that ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection and location system, had recorded 10 shots fired over the course of six seconds Saturday as police chased 19-year-old Kenneth Wade Harding near Third Street in the Bayview - one shot at first, followed 1.9 seconds later by nine in rapid succession.

The technology cannot determine which shots came from which guns. But Police Chief Greg Suhr said witnesses have told investigators that they saw the muzzle flash from a gun that Harding was shooting from under his arm.

The shooting provoked an angry response in the Bayview on Monday, where one man interviewed at the scene said he had not seen Harding firing. Police scheduled a town hall meeting for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Bayview Opera House at 4705 Third St., at which Suhr said he wanted "to demonstrate with certainty what the facts of this case are."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/18/BA0H1KBQDA.DTL#ixzz1SanEPSiX

[slackmaster]

6. I'm wondering how people who didn't see something can be referred to as "witnesses"

[Xithras]

7. I saw the video on LiveLeak yesterday.

You get several glimpses of the gun in the dirt flowerbed early on, as the person with the camera films the body and the police. The cameraman never focuses on the gun, and you get the impression that he was unaware it was there. A couple minutes later, as the crowd pushes in, the police form a defensive line near the body. If you look at the position of that line, and refer back to the position of the gun earlier in the video, it's clear that the crowd was standing on the gun.

The police claim that someone walked off with the gun, in this case, is believable. They were overrun by an angry mob, and lost control of the crime scene.

[slackmaster]

8. It's possible that the police planted it AND the crowd ran off with it

I hope the "authorities" figure out what really went down.

[Shagbark Hickory]

9. Shoot a man over a $2 fare? Why not just use a rattan cane or detain they guy for 50 years.

[slackmaster]

10. The article doesn't say he was shot BECAUSE of the fare, or non-payment thereof

It says he was shot AFTER he tried to avoid paying the fare.

post hoc != propter hoc

[emilyg]

11. Unrec. - misleading headline.