San Francisco, CA – The San Francisco Police Department released bodycam video on Thursday of a controversial officer-involved shooting in North Beach that involved a known gang member.
Police said two uniformed officers approached four men who were standing on a street corner drinking in public, shortly after midnight on June 9, Newsweek reported.
The video showed that one of the men, later identified as 28-year-old Oliver Barcenas, fled down the sidewalk, and the officer wearing the bodycam chased him.
Police said that as Barcenas ran from the officer on the busy sidewalk, he shed his jacket and pulled out a .45-caliber Glock with a laser sight and a 26-round extended magazine, the San Francisco Gate reported.
The officer fired his gun three times, striking Barcenas in the back, the video showed.
Barcenas fell to the sidewalk and did not appear to move.
The officer stood over Barcenas and yelled at another officer nearby to call for help.
“I can’t. My radio broke,” the other officer responded.
At that point, the officer used his own radio and calmly called in “shots fired,” and requested medics and backup to respond quickly, the video showed.
Almost immediately, an angry crowd began to gather around the officer who had fired the shots.
The officer told the people to “get back” multiple times, as he attempted to preserve the scene.
In the video, people can be seen reaching down and touching the wounded man as they filmed video with their phones.
Additional officers arrived quickly and began clearing the area around the officer and Barcenas.
“He had a firearm, I don’t know where it is,” the officer told a supervisor who arrived on the scene.
“We need to find that gun … we need to back people further up, there’s a gun somewhere here,” the officer said.
Barcenas was transported to the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital for treatment.
He was charged with delaying an officer, carrying a concealed firearm, exhibiting a firearm, and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, Newsweek reported.
“We don’t know what he was up to, but we think we were successful in interrupting a violent crime,” San Francisco Police Sergeant Michael Andraychak told KPIX.
Barcenas, a well-known Norteño gang member, was previously shot by police in 2012, in an incident that sparked two days of protests and disorder in San Francisco.
In that incident, Barcenas was involved in a police chase and shot at officers with Tec-9, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Future-Interim Police Chief Toney Chaplin returned fire on that occasion, and hit Barcenas twice. At the time, he was out on bail for his involvement in a shooting that injured a 15-year-old boy, Newsweek reported.
San Francisco PD released the bodycam footage at a town hall meeting on June 14 in accordance with the department’s transparency policy.
A number of residents expressed outrage and concern about the shooting that took place while the streets were full of revelers celebrating the Golden State Warriors’ NBA championship win.
The incident continues to be investigated by the San Francisco PD’s internal affairs unit, the district attorney, and the city’s Department of Police Accountability, the San Francisco Gate reported.
Watch the chase and the shooting in the video below:
