SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A man fatally shot by a San Francisco police officer is seen in newly released videos repeatedly stabbing a sandwich shop employee and chasing him before an officer opened fire.
San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott released footage Wednesday from surveillance videos and body cameras worn by two officers, including the one who last week fatally shot Nicholas Flusche, 26.
The officers were walking their usual beat in the city’s busy downtown Market Street when they came upon the stabbing of a sandwich shop employee, Scott said.
The videos show Flusche going behind the counter and stabbing the employee. They also show a woman intervening and hitting Flusche with a tray and a man aggressively pulling him away from the employee.
Flusche is then seen chasing after the employee and falling to the ground as two police officers intervene. He died at the scene. The stabbing victim was taken to a hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries.
“Transparency is what the community expects from us, and it’s what we expect from ourselves,” Scott said during a town hall meeting. “The release of the information today will be done in a nonjudgmental way. We just want to get the facts out to the public and not make any judgments.”
Scott was sworn in as chief in January and Flusche was the first fatal shooting by an officer this year. Scott replaced Greg Suhr, who resigned under pressure last year after a series of fatal officer-involved shootings.
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