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san francisco police: stop shooting · by Rafi Kam
“Asa Sullivan (in plaid shirt), 25, waved an eyeglasses case at two officers before being fatally shot on Tuesday.”
By way of Prometheus 6 comes this link to a story in the SF Gate about a man being shot in an attic and the stories told afterwards.
The shooting occurred, Fong said, when Sullivan raised his hands and held the eyeglasses case as if it were a weapon.“He assumed a shooting position,’’ Fong said. “He held a cylindrical object and was pointing it right at the female officer.’’
The male officer, believing his partner was in danger, fired first, his round grazing the female officer’s head, Fong said. “She believed she was being fired at,’’ and she too opened fire on Sullivan, the chief said.
‘’They believed this individual was pointing a firearm at them,’’ Fong said. “They took action they felt was appropriate at the time.’’
The chief conceded that police had given a preliminary account of the shooting to reporters that turned out to have several errors.
Police originally said that Sullivan was armed and had fired through the ceiling, narrowly missing one officer, and that two other officers then opened fire into the ceiling.
A revised update was provided late Wednesday afternoon. The round that went through the floor was a ricochet fired by one of the two officers in the attic, police said.
Hm, smells like fish.
In the wake of this story we’d like to extend a special offer. Any member of the San Francisco Police Department can buy our Stop Shooting t-shirt at cost.
The same deal will go for anyone who wants to buy shirts to be given as gifts to members of the S.F.P.D. or to police anywhere else in the U.S. This is a serious offer. Contact me if you’re interested.
a change is gonna come. eventually.
you need to inform us if any cops buy a shirt.
peace.
— Vik Jun 9, 07:35 PM
asa, his family and those police officers are victims of tragic circumstances. don’t think for a second that those officers are robotic automotans that aren’t suffering severe emotional reactions.
do u think that killing someone is like eating a cheese sandwich? these cops are people with families too….and they thought they were going to die. thankfully, there are people who are courageous enough to do that job.
— mary Jun 11, 05:10 AM
mary,
i think that i so rarely hear of white guys getting killed while holding their eyeglass case or wallet or getting shot in the back.
i think that the police should have followed procedure and called for backup instead of going up and killing the guy when he wouldn’t come out.
and i think that some funny business happened with the change in story in the reports.
that’s what i think. someone is dead for no good reason. our assumptions of the emotional pain suffered by these police officers won’t bring asa back and aren’t a reason for us not to scrutinize such events.
— rafi Jun 11, 07:22 AM
of course we should scrutinze the events. however, i wonder why you don’t scrutinze your assumption that these officers didn’t call for back-up…..we’re you there????
do you do any research before you put out this uninformed opinion that the officers are automatically at fault? doesn’t sound like it matters to you…it’s just black .vs. white…the evil po-po keepin the brother down.
stop using the race card.
— mary Jun 12, 05:07 PM
Did you read the article?
“At that point, the officers had the option of calling in a canine unit or SWAT team to flush out Sullivan, or they could have tried to wait him out, authorities said. Instead, they ventured into the attic.”
So who didn’t do their research?
— rafi Jun 12, 05:31 PM
why would this cat even think about assuming a shooting position and waving a sunglass case like a weapon in the first place… u think a cop is gonna even take the chance?... would a civilian even take the chance? tell u what, if a cat looked like he was gonna blast me, i’d blast first
— BR1 Jun 13, 06:34 PM
as to your question rafi, yes, i did read that article. however, as we all know, the newspaper does not always report the events as they factually happened.
i do not think you really know whether the officers did call for SWAT, a canine unit, or even a hostage negotiator. any truly informed observor of police shootings knows that initial media reports are flooded with inconsistencies and supposition. please don’t be one of those people who beleives everything he or she reads.
only time and thorough investigation will reveal the actual facts and circumstances. keep an open mind in all things.
— mary Jun 14, 02:08 AM
I knew Asa personally and although I hadn’t seen him in a couple years I still feel like we were friends. I must say both Mary and Rafi have valid points to some extent, yet I believe that this ending could have been prevented. If the police did call backup or anyone else to assist them, they should have let them assist. They shouldn’t have gone into an attic where there could have been a real gun waiting for them. Lastly, they should have gotten the truth about Asa and his friend being there legally before they even tried to take Asa out of the house…don’t you think? Asa sure thought so…
— Danielle Jun 14, 12:21 PM
I am white. I am horrified at this senseless murder of yet another in an endless string of beautiful black brothers in San Francisco, a city that should know better.
Criminalization of purported “squatters,” is just the beginning of this atrocity. People don’t have homes in racist, classist, corporate-owned SF. These two men were present in that apartment legally.
What followed that is far worse.
One officer shot another, and then they shot Asa. These cops need arms and cultural sensitivity training—- that’s a OLD STORY. How many deaths of African American young men have there been—- 25 plus, too numerous to count.
Smells like ethnic cleansing because it raises too many unanswered questions about all these deaths by cop.
That old 1800s song comes to mind. “I didn’t know the gun was loaded, and I’m so sorry, my friend. I didn’t know the gun was loaded, and I’ll never never do it again.”
Ooops, sorry! “Didn’t know that was a glasses case.”
If these cops are grieving after what they did, they absolutely should. The patience of the African American community with slaughter like this is absolutely amazing!
There is no bringing ASA back now. is there?
— carol harvey Jun 18, 05:35 PM
The Yahoo Group Justice 4 Asa looks like a valuable resource.
According to information posted on that Yahoo group, Asa’s cousin Brian Sullivan was slain by SF police in 1993.
More here on that
— rafi Jun 19, 01:52 AM