Believe nothing

By David Noble writer for End the Lie

In Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco early Saturday evening a teenager who ran from police over a bus fair was shot as many as 10 times in the back and neck, leaving him lying in a growing pool of blood writhing in pain, as cops trained their guns on him according  to witnesses. Police had been doing inspections to make sure everybody had paid their fairs when they stopped a 19 year old man who suddenly bolted.

According to police the suspect shot at the officers as he ran, they returned fire, fatally wounding him but this was contradicted by angry witnesses who claimed that the teenager had not fired at the pursuing police officers. Charles Walton a San Francisco resident claimed that an officer had went onto one knee taking up a firing position before opening fire on the teenager. Henry Taylor another resident stated that the gunfire had only went one way with the cops shooting at the teenager.

Extra police had to be called in to control an angry crowd as hundreds of angry residents gathered in the plaza at the Oakdale/Palou light rail stop. The crowd continued to protest into the early hours expressing outrage at the shooting with even more police wearing riot gear being called in for crowd control. .

Police searched the area including rooftops but would not reveal if any weapon had been found.

What made this incident even worse as can be seen in the video below is that the police showed no interest in helping the badly injured teenager until he stopped moving as he lay bleeding out on the sidewalk. Eventually he was put on a gurney and taken to hospital where he later died.

 Police say that at least one of the officers fired shots and that they are on payed routine leave as an investigation is carried out with the department of Internal affairs , the DA and the Office of citizens complaints are all involved in the investigation.

Questions must be asked whether the teenager could have been saved if medical help had been more forthcoming. Regardless of what really happened the sad facts are that a young mans life has ended over an unpaid fair. While I recognize that police have a dangerous job questions have to be asked about how they go about it with a growing number of innocent victims being shot and killed as police seem to be moving to a shoot first policy. Time will tell if this is another one of those incidents.