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SFPD to answer questions on fatal shooting of Alejandro Nieto
Yet, another wrongful death dealt out by the police. Why didn't they try talking to this young man before firing their weapons ???? OH
San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr will be on hand this evening [Tue/25] for a town hall meeting to discuss last week’s officer-involved shooting in Bernal Heights Park. The shooting victim, 28-year-old Alejandro Nieto, was a City College of San Francisco student, a Latino, and Bernal Heights resident who had hoped to become a youth probation officer.
Just before sunset last night [Mon/24], a group of about 150 friends, family members, and community supporters gathered for a vigil at the spot where he was gunned down by multiple police officers.
The community members lit candles, sang, burned incense, and conducted Buddhist chants in honor of his spiritual practice. Those who knew Nieto, whom they called Alex, described him as caring, ambitious, and committed to nonviolence.
“He was such a bright person,” said Ben Bac Sierra, an author and instructor at City College who knew Nieto through shared ties in the neighborhood. Nieto had been helping Bacsierra organize community events and book readings, he said. They’d rolled down Mission Street together in a classic low-rider for a parade, shouting “si se puede!” while onlookers cheered them on.
Torrance Bynum, former dean at City College’s Evans and Southeast Center campus and a former instructor of Administration of Justice, described himself to the Bay Guardian as Nieto’s mentor. “I would give him rides home from class,” he said. Nieto would stop by to visit him, and “if I was in a meeting, he would wait for me.” Bynum said he’d phoned Nieto on his birthday just a few weeks ago, March 4.
On Monday night, major questions still lingered about the events leading up to Nieto’s death.
A statement issued by the SFPD on March 21, about three hours after the shooting, said officers had arrived at the park in response to “911 calls of a male subject with a gun.” Police “encountered a male subject with a weapon,” the statement went on. “The male subject pointed a weapon at the officers, and multiple officers discharged their firearms.” (In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Deputy Police Chief Lyn Tomioka indicated that he “appeared to draw a weapon.”) He was pronounced dead, the statement noted, “and an additional weapon was found.”
In the days following the shooting, however, friends and family members told reporters that Nieto had a stun gun, not a firearm, because he worked as a security guard at a nightclub. They also said Nieto was peacefully eating a burrito just before the shooting occurred.
According to California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services records, Nieto obtained registration to work as a guard/patrolperson in June of 2007, and obtained apermit to carry a baton in September of 2013. Security guards must complete a 40-hour course of required training before registering with the state.
A report in the San Francisco Chronicle suggested that just before the shooting, Nieto was “acting erratically and threatening passersby,” quoting an unnamed witness who said a man had threatened his dog with a “pistol-type stun gun” and yelled profanities. It also referenced a past incident involving Nieto's alleged use of a stun gun.
A person who declined to be named told the Bay Guardian that about half an hour before the shooting occurred, two men who were walking down the pedestrian pathway on the north slope of Bernal Heights Park alerted a jogger that there was a man ahead wearing a gun on his hip.
They told the jogger that they had called the police. The jogger, who was about 50 feet from the man and started moving away from him after receiving the warning, was too far away to see whether he had a weapon but noticed that he was “pacing back and forth” and “air boxing.”
When the Bay Guardian phoned the SFPD to ask what sort of weapon had been discovered, Sgt. Danielle Newman said she could not release that information.
“He was never arrested in his life,” Bac Sierra said of Nieto during the vigil. “He wanted to be a good person – and he was.”
Bac Sierra later told the Bay Guardian he'd first heard the news Saturday night, and spoke with members of Nieto’s family the following day. The family was not notified of what happened until 3pm the day after the shooting, he said. The report was that Nieto had been shot 14 times.
Sup. John Avalos, who represents the Excelsior District, said he had worked with Nieto in the past and knew him from Coleman Advocates for Children & Youth. “I was making sure that his life was going in a positive direction, and what we saw in Alejandro was that he had a really big heart,” Avalos said at last night’s vigil. “He gave it to a lot of people, and often probably didn’t give it enough to himself.”
He added, “Blood’s been shed, in this case, by people we’re supposed to trust. But … we have a lot of difficulty trusting our police, because from time to time these things happen."
Avalos also mentioned that when it comes to dealing with subjects who are mentally ill, SFPD has an established protocol. Under a program that began in 2011, specially trained officers with the department’s Crisis Intervention Team are to be dispatched to the scene when calls involve a mentally ill individual.
At tonight's meeting, Suhr is expected to answer questions from community members. Friends and supporters of Nieto are still in shock from the news.
“I don’t know what it’s going to take, but I think all of us here should call on the Office of Citizen Complaints, and make sure they do an investigation,” Avalos said. “We need to make sure that the officer who – I really hope, despite all the shots that were fired, are having trouble with their consciences right now. Because taking anybody’s life, or hurting anyone in such a way, is unconscionable. This young man, he deserves that from all of us, to make sure the senseless taking of his life was not done in vain, that it leads to something better.”
Avalos said he was also there on behalf of Mission District Sup. David Campos, who was unable to attend because he was in a hearing.
The SFPD town hall is scheduled for 6pm at Leonard Flynn Elementary School, located at 3125 Cesar Chavez Street.
Bac Sierra urged everyone gathered at the vigil to attend the town hall meeting. “Those cops have to feel this,” he said. “This neighborhood has to feel this.”
http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2014/03/25/sfpd-answer-questions-fatal-shooting-alejandro-nieto
San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr will be on hand this evening [Tue/25] for a town hall meeting to discuss last week’s officer-involved shooting in Bernal Heights Park. The shooting victim, 28-year-old Alejandro Nieto, was a City College of San Francisco student, a Latino, and Bernal Heights resident who had hoped to become a youth probation officer.
Just before sunset last night [Mon/24], a group of about 150 friends, family members, and community supporters gathered for a vigil at the spot where he was gunned down by multiple police officers.
The community members lit candles, sang, burned incense, and conducted Buddhist chants in honor of his spiritual practice. Those who knew Nieto, whom they called Alex, described him as caring, ambitious, and committed to nonviolence.
“He was such a bright person,” said Ben Bac Sierra, an author and instructor at City College who knew Nieto through shared ties in the neighborhood. Nieto had been helping Bacsierra organize community events and book readings, he said. They’d rolled down Mission Street together in a classic low-rider for a parade, shouting “si se puede!” while onlookers cheered them on.
Torrance Bynum, former dean at City College’s Evans and Southeast Center campus and a former instructor of Administration of Justice, described himself to the Bay Guardian as Nieto’s mentor. “I would give him rides home from class,” he said. Nieto would stop by to visit him, and “if I was in a meeting, he would wait for me.” Bynum said he’d phoned Nieto on his birthday just a few weeks ago, March 4.
On Monday night, major questions still lingered about the events leading up to Nieto’s death.
A statement issued by the SFPD on March 21, about three hours after the shooting, said officers had arrived at the park in response to “911 calls of a male subject with a gun.” Police “encountered a male subject with a weapon,” the statement went on. “The male subject pointed a weapon at the officers, and multiple officers discharged their firearms.” (In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Deputy Police Chief Lyn Tomioka indicated that he “appeared to draw a weapon.”) He was pronounced dead, the statement noted, “and an additional weapon was found.”
In the days following the shooting, however, friends and family members told reporters that Nieto had a stun gun, not a firearm, because he worked as a security guard at a nightclub. They also said Nieto was peacefully eating a burrito just before the shooting occurred.
According to California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services records, Nieto obtained registration to work as a guard/patrolperson in June of 2007, and obtained apermit to carry a baton in September of 2013. Security guards must complete a 40-hour course of required training before registering with the state.
A report in the San Francisco Chronicle suggested that just before the shooting, Nieto was “acting erratically and threatening passersby,” quoting an unnamed witness who said a man had threatened his dog with a “pistol-type stun gun” and yelled profanities. It also referenced a past incident involving Nieto's alleged use of a stun gun.
A person who declined to be named told the Bay Guardian that about half an hour before the shooting occurred, two men who were walking down the pedestrian pathway on the north slope of Bernal Heights Park alerted a jogger that there was a man ahead wearing a gun on his hip.
They told the jogger that they had called the police. The jogger, who was about 50 feet from the man and started moving away from him after receiving the warning, was too far away to see whether he had a weapon but noticed that he was “pacing back and forth” and “air boxing.”
When the Bay Guardian phoned the SFPD to ask what sort of weapon had been discovered, Sgt. Danielle Newman said she could not release that information.
“He was never arrested in his life,” Bac Sierra said of Nieto during the vigil. “He wanted to be a good person – and he was.”
Bac Sierra later told the Bay Guardian he'd first heard the news Saturday night, and spoke with members of Nieto’s family the following day. The family was not notified of what happened until 3pm the day after the shooting, he said. The report was that Nieto had been shot 14 times.
Sup. John Avalos, who represents the Excelsior District, said he had worked with Nieto in the past and knew him from Coleman Advocates for Children & Youth. “I was making sure that his life was going in a positive direction, and what we saw in Alejandro was that he had a really big heart,” Avalos said at last night’s vigil. “He gave it to a lot of people, and often probably didn’t give it enough to himself.”
He added, “Blood’s been shed, in this case, by people we’re supposed to trust. But … we have a lot of difficulty trusting our police, because from time to time these things happen."
Avalos also mentioned that when it comes to dealing with subjects who are mentally ill, SFPD has an established protocol. Under a program that began in 2011, specially trained officers with the department’s Crisis Intervention Team are to be dispatched to the scene when calls involve a mentally ill individual.
At tonight's meeting, Suhr is expected to answer questions from community members. Friends and supporters of Nieto are still in shock from the news.
“I don’t know what it’s going to take, but I think all of us here should call on the Office of Citizen Complaints, and make sure they do an investigation,” Avalos said. “We need to make sure that the officer who – I really hope, despite all the shots that were fired, are having trouble with their consciences right now. Because taking anybody’s life, or hurting anyone in such a way, is unconscionable. This young man, he deserves that from all of us, to make sure the senseless taking of his life was not done in vain, that it leads to something better.”
Avalos said he was also there on behalf of Mission District Sup. David Campos, who was unable to attend because he was in a hearing.
The SFPD town hall is scheduled for 6pm at Leonard Flynn Elementary School, located at 3125 Cesar Chavez Street.
Bac Sierra urged everyone gathered at the vigil to attend the town hall meeting. “Those cops have to feel this,” he said. “This neighborhood has to feel this.”
http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2014/03/25/sfpd-answer-questions-fatal-shooting-alejandro-nieto
Hm. You are suggesting that the police were plain clothes cops and they didn't identify themselves? Not sure I got that from what is written.
I read that they told him to raise his hands and instead he reached for his taser.
It must be acknowledged that this was a bad and deadly choice for him.
The police ARE the authority. You do as they say--- because the are the authority and also for YOUR own protection. They have the right to act if they feel threatened. Do I think 14 bullets were necessary, NO. But the man's actions resulted in this event.
And I do agree with Mikesimon that currently, guns are so prevalent, that police are now in a state of constant worry about just making it through their shift. I agree that there are too many guns. And then when someone who is acting suspiciously, strangely, etc. and people are worried he's a danger and then he doesn't listen to their commands and starts to go for something in a holster, they are going to act to make sure they make it through their shift. I get it and if it were my husband out there working as a police officer, that is what I'd want him to do. No, not kill someone but to defend himself if someone points a weapon at him. Could he shoot in the leg or something? That would be great. I just don't know how realistic it is to do that. But that would be good if they could shoot in the arm or leg and not kill but make sure they weren't hurt.
I'm ALL for these cameras for the protection of the suspect as much as for the protection of the police officers so no one questions the situation in which they act in the line of duty.
I'm sure there are some bad cops out there. Don't get me wrong. And racism and profiling are a constant problem. But from what is written, it doesn't really sound like that here.
I read that they told him to raise his hands and instead he reached for his taser.
It must be acknowledged that this was a bad and deadly choice for him.
The police ARE the authority. You do as they say--- because the are the authority and also for YOUR own protection. They have the right to act if they feel threatened. Do I think 14 bullets were necessary, NO. But the man's actions resulted in this event.
And I do agree with Mikesimon that currently, guns are so prevalent, that police are now in a state of constant worry about just making it through their shift. I agree that there are too many guns. And then when someone who is acting suspiciously, strangely, etc. and people are worried he's a danger and then he doesn't listen to their commands and starts to go for something in a holster, they are going to act to make sure they make it through their shift. I get it and if it were my husband out there working as a police officer, that is what I'd want him to do. No, not kill someone but to defend himself if someone points a weapon at him. Could he shoot in the leg or something? That would be great. I just don't know how realistic it is to do that. But that would be good if they could shoot in the arm or leg and not kill but make sure they weren't hurt.
I'm ALL for these cameras for the protection of the suspect as much as for the protection of the police officers so no one questions the situation in which they act in the line of duty.
I'm sure there are some bad cops out there. Don't get me wrong. And racism and profiling are a constant problem. But from what is written, it doesn't really sound like that here.
Did he draw his taser or was it on his belt ?
The dead man worked as a security guard and had a reason to have a taser on him.
If it were in his hand, and the police hadn't identified themselves, one could imagine him thinking he might be the target for a crime and pulled his taser out just in case.
If it were not for my knowledge of several incidents of police caused violence especially against minorities in the S.F/ Oakland bay area, I would not be so suspicious.
Some police departments now require police to have wearable cameras to help stop such problems as this one.
The dead man worked as a security guard and had a reason to have a taser on him.
If it were in his hand, and the police hadn't identified themselves, one could imagine him thinking he might be the target for a crime and pulled his taser out just in case.
If it were not for my knowledge of several incidents of police caused violence especially against minorities in the S.F/ Oakland bay area, I would not be so suspicious.
Some police departments now require police to have wearable cameras to help stop such problems as this one.
I didn't say it never happened.I said "..you probably don't see a lot of homicides at a shooting range either.." And apparently I was correct since you said "Even though it is rare...."
But again that misses the point I was attempting to make.
There are too many guns in the hands of too many people. And it is a high probability that a significant portion of those people are either criminals or knuckleheads or mentally challenged individuals who should never be in possession of firearms. And it is that culture that leads to this senseless murder/killing.
But again that misses the point I was attempting to make.
There are too many guns in the hands of too many people. And it is a high probability that a significant portion of those people are either criminals or knuckleheads or mentally challenged individuals who should never be in possession of firearms. And it is that culture that leads to this senseless murder/killing.
This is rich....
"That totally misses the point but I assume you knew that when you posted"
No, I'm not "wired" that way.
Even though it is rare, a highly decorated Sniper was recently murdered at a shooting range.
No, I'm not "wired" that way.
Even though it is rare, a highly decorated Sniper was recently murdered at a shooting range.
Yea, and you probably don't see a lot of homicides at a shooting range either. That totally misses the point but I assume you knew that when you posted.
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