SAN FRANCISCO – A San Francisco police officer shot and killed a young woman as officers attempted to remove her from a wrecked stolen car and arrest her Thursday morning, the department's chief said.
Chief Greg Suhr said a patrol car turned on its lights and sirens when it came upon the 27-year-old woman sitting behind the wheel of a parked car reported stolen at about 9:45 a.m. Suhr said a witness reported that the woman then tried to drive off, but slammed into a parked truck about 100 feet away in an industrial area in the southern portion of the city.
The witness told police that officers then jumped out their patrol car and raced to the accident scene where the woman was trying to get clear of the wreckage by switching quickly between drive and reverse. The witness told police that officers opened the driver's door of the suspected stolen car as it was moving back and forth and were attempting to arrest her when a sergeant fired a single bullet. She was rushed to a nearby hospital where she died, Suhr said.
Suhr said it's unknown if any weapons were found in the car.
The fatal police shooting occurred in the same impoverished neighborhood where officers shot and killed Mario Woods in December. Woods was armed with a knife and witness video show him attempting to evade officers when they open fire. The Woods shooting led to several protests over police "use-of-force" and calls for Suhr to resign.
Suhr responded by announcing a number of reforms and calling in the U.S. Department of Justice to review the department's policy and procedures.
"This is exactly the kind of thing with all the reforms we are trying to prevent," Suhr said Thursday.
He said the responding officers had not yet been interviewed and he had no other information. He didn't release the woman's name.
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