AG to investigate fatal police shooting at San Francisco Airport
The California Attorney General will investigate the circumstances that caused San Francisco police officers to shoot fatally a man outside the entrance to the BART platform at San Francisco International Airport on Thursday.
State Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that the state’s Department of Justice will review independently Thursday’s fatal shooting in compliance with the same state law that requires all police shootings involving unarmed citizens to be investigated.
A bystander was hospitalized but survived, authorities said. Authorities have not provided details regarding how the bystander was injured, but the agency’s involvement in the investigation indicates authorities believe it happened in the gunfire.
Police and airport officials each said the man fatally shot by officers was armed. He died at the scene. Authorities did not identify him Friday.
San Francisco police released a statement Thursday afternoon saying at 7:26 a.m. several people called to report a man acting erratically and that officers determined he had a handgun. Regarding the shooting, police said only that “in the course of law enforcement officers’ engagement with the suspect, an officer-involved shooting occurred involving San Francisco police officers.”
Police did not have any comment Friday.
Airport spokesman Doug Yakel in a statement Thursday morning said officers at some point believed the man had two guns, and that he approached officers after they tried to de-escalate the situation. When he approached, police fired, according to Yakel.
Justice department investigators were at the scene Thursday, according to Bonta. Once the agency’s investigation is complete, Bonta said it will be turned over to the justice department’s special prosecutions section with the Criminal Law Division for an independent review.
Yakel said the shooting did not interrupt airport operations, and that flights continued to come and go. BART closed the entrance to the station but trains resumed their service to the airport following a delay of about 53 minutes.