San Francisco police face no charges in death of man shot from behind
San Francisco police face no charges in death of man shot from behind
District attorney says detectives Eric Reboli and Craig Tiffe shot Guatemalan immigrant Amilcar Perez-Lopez, 20, five times in the back in self-defense
Guardian staff and agencies
Wednesday 12 April 2017 20.49 EDT
Two San Francisco police detectives will not face criminal charges for the 2015 killing of a young Guatemalan immigrant who was shot from behind five times, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Detectives Eric Reboli and Craig Tiffe feared for their lives and shot in self-defense after scuffling with Amilcar Perez-Lopez, 20, who lunged at one of them with a 12in knife, the San Francisco district attorney said in a report. This account was contradicted by a number of eyewitnesses in a 2015 Guardian investigation into the shooting.
The plainclothes detectives were in an unmarked police car when they responded on 26 February 2015 to a report of a man chasing another man with a knife. Reboli detained the man getting chased and Tiffe grabbed Perez-Lopez, according to the report. Tiffe told investigators that Perez-Lopez slipped from Tiffe’s grasp and then lunged at him with the knife while the other officer was coming to help.
An autopsy showed Perez-Lopez was shot five times from behind and a sixth time in the side by both officers, who ended up standing side-by-side as Perez-Lopez ran toward Tiffe, according to the report.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/12/san-francisco-police-shooting-amilcar-perez-lopez
