Newly released video footage appears to show a San Francisco police officer making physical contact with a fleeing suspect before the suspect fatally crashed into a bus shelter in SoMa.
The SF Public Defender's Office is calling out the San Francisco Police Department for dishonesty, and accusing them of excessive force in the case of the October 12 death of 56-year-old Edwin Adams. Adams was riding an electric scooter on Mission Street when he was spotted by undercover SFPD officers who then pursued him over an outstanding warrant — which was issued because he had failed to charge his ankle monitor that was issued as a condition of his recent release from jail in a drug case.
New surveillance video released by the Public Defender's Office to multiple news outlets, including Mission Local, shows Adams traveling southwest in the middle of Mission Street, toward the intersection of Eighth Street. An unmarked police vehicle can be seen stopping diagonally in the street in Adams's path, and the passenger-side door opening.
Meanwhile another unmarked vehicle approaches from behind Adams, appeared to follow him into the lanes of oncoming traffic just as an officer can be seen exiting the first vehicle and lunging toward the bus shelter.
The entire encounter is obscured by the vehicle approaching from behind, but it appears that the plainclothes officer did — as contemporaneous witnesses had suggested the day of the incident — try to tackle Adams off his scooter.
Adams then collided with a metal pole, and died from his injuries.
The SFPD at the time only said that the fleeing suspect had a fatal collision with a "street fixture," but did not mention any officer's role in the crash.
"Police chose to pursue Mr. Adams in multiple unmarked vehicles and then violently tackle him from his scooter," says Zac Dillon, a senior policy analyst with the Public Defender’s Integrity Unit, in a statement. "SFPD’s public account of this incident was sparse and misleading, omitting the police actions that immediately preceded the collision, which led to Mr. Adams’s death."
Dillon and another member of the Public Defender’s Integrity Unit, Brian Cox, filed a formal complaint about the incident last week with the city's Department of Police Accountability.
The Public Defender's Office further notes that the violent and dangerous nature of the pursuit and attempted arrest were out of line with SFPD policy, especially given that Adams's previous offense was nonviolent, and given that this was the only warrant out for his arrest.
"Mr. Adams was a father and a brother, and his family is grieving his untimely death," says Deputy Public Defender Meenha Lee in a statement. "Police pursuits are inherently dangerous. They are supposed to be reserved for situations where the need to intervene outweighs the very real risks, because they can so easily lead to tragedies like this one."
Adams's brother, Curtis Adams, lived with him in the East Bay, and told the Chronicle last month that Adams was a "down-to-earth dude" who described previous incidents being "messed with" by undercover cops in SF. Adams had reportedly been arrested several times on drug charges and, each time, released with an ankle monitor.
The District Attorney's Office's Independent Investigations Bureau is conducting its own investigation into the pursuit and crash.
The SFPD has yet to comment any further on the incident beyond a brief statement the day of the crash.
Previously: Man Killed In Scooter Crash During Apparent Police Chase In SF Was Wanted for Ankle Monitor Violation
