Shooting renews scrutiny of officer
Cop in North Beach chase faced earlier complaints
A San Francisco police officer who shot a fleeing, armed man in the back this month in North Beach was the subject of an unusual presentation to the city Board of Supervisors less than two years ago.
On Nov. 25, 2016, friends and family members of people alleging abuses by Joshua Cabillo, who is now a five-year veteran of the force, delivered a report to the board during public comment.
They cited six alleged incidents of misconduct and excessive use of force by the officer, who in a previous job fatally shot a 15-year-old boy in South San Francisco.
One of the presenters was Dolores Piper, 75, the great aunt of Derrick Gaines, the teen killed by Cabillo in the 2012 shooting. Gaines had been fleeing with an inoperable revolver, which later reportedly fell out of his waistband when Cabillo tackled him.
The city of South San Francisco settled a civil suit against Cabillo for $250,000, without ad-
mitting wrongdoing. The officer, who said he had feared being shot, was cleared of potential charges.
“We’ve brought this guy’s name up any number of times,” Piper said in an interview Wednesday. “How many times? How many meetings? How many sessions?”
Leigh Stackpole joined Piper in asking San Francisco officials to get Cabillo off the streets in 2016.
Her son was a plaintiff in a suit filed against Cabillo and other San Francisco officers by the American Civil Liberties Union a year earlier. Stackpole’s son was thrown to the ground and punched, and officers twisted and threatened to break his arm, according to the complaint. The city settled the suit in 2016 for $40,000, without admitting wrongdoing.
Stackpole, 52, said the trauma of the incident led her and her son, now 25, to move to New York.
“It’s just the frustration of how hard it is to get a bad cop off the force, and then this is what ends up happening, he shoots someone else,” she said Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Cabillo was identified as the officer who shot a fleeing man on June 9 in a busy North Beach nightlife area, an incident captured by the officer’s body-worn camera.
Oliver Barcenas, 28, was part of a group of men stopped by Cabillo for drinking on a street corner with open containers, prompting Barcenas to flee. Cabillo pursued him within seconds and opened fire.
While running, Barcenas took off his jacket and drew a .45 caliber Glock pistol with a laser sight and an extended clip with 26 rounds, police said. Police have not said Barcenas pointed or fired the gun.
Sgt. Tony Montoya, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, defended Cabillo’s character and noted that it’s not uncommon for officers to fire their weapon multiple times in their careers.
Montoya, who has worked as Cabillo’s supervisor in the past and was named as one of the officers in the ACLU lawsuit, said he’s never seen Cabillo be rude or aggressive.
“He is a very diligent, hardworking police officer,” Montoya said. “If anything, he’s really easygoing and evenkeeled, and when we work together, he actually did most of the talking just because he’s got a knack for talking to people.”
The report compiled by Stackpole and Piper detailed civilian complaints against Cabillo, but it’s unclear just how many have been investigated by the city.
The civilian Department of Police Accountability “cannot disclose the number of complaints or whether there have been any complaints against any individual officer,” said Sarah Hawkins, the group’s chief of staff.
The ACLU released a statement Wednesday calling for more transparency from law enforcement regarding police shootings.
“We have seen and heard far too many stories of people — particularly people of color — being killed and mistreated by police to allow departments to keep judging these abuses in secret,” the organization said.
Maria Villalta, a notary public at Carecen, an advocacy organization in San Francisco, said she filed a civilian complaint against Cabillo with the Department of Police Accountability in 2015.
Villalta said she, her former husband and his cousin were racially profiled by Cabillo and his partner. Her ex-husband and his cousin were detained on the street and not told why, she said.
“It was just not fair. I don’t like him very much,” Villalta said of Cabillo.
The San Francisco Police Department did not respond to requests for comment about incidents involving the officer.
Montoya declined to comment on the North Beach shooting, but he suggested that video evidence doesn’t always show the full picture.
“We’ve all learned through experience a certain angle or a certain type of video doesn’t give you the full understanding of what occurred,” Montoya said. “A video camera may not catch everything a person sees.”
Barcenas was shot by San Francisco police before, in 2012, in the Mission District, after allegedly pulling a Tec-9 assault pistol on current Assistant Chief Toney Chaplin, prompting Chaplin to fire.
Piper said she feared the officer’s behavior will be excused because Barcenas has a criminal history.
“He’s a human being with a life,” Piper said.