San Francisco police are launching an internal investigation after two videos surfaced showing a San Francisco police officer appearing to try to force a disabled man out of his wheelchair and into the street in the city's Sunnydale public housing complex over the weekend, officials said Wednesday.
San Francisco police spokeswoman Officer Grace Gatpandan said the incident under investigation occurred around 4 p.m. on Sunday, near the intersection of Sunnydale Avenue and Hahn Street, in the city's Visitacion Valley neighborhood. The intersection is less than a block from where a man was fatally shot on Tuesday night, police said.
According to Gatpandan, officers were patrolling in the area, when they noticed a couple people allegedly engaged in an argument. The officers contacted them and cited three people for possession of open containers of alcohol and one person for obstructing an officer, Gatpandan said.
A man who goes by the pseudonym Squally Dee on Facebook posted a video to the social media site the evening of the encounter that appears to show a San Francisco police officer attempting to push his cousin out of his wheelchair multiple times. Just before the man in the wheelchair looks like he will tip over face first off the sidewalk and into the street, a male runs to his aid and helps right the wheelchair.
The male who helped the man in the wheelchair also shot a video of the incident from a different angle. This video captures the officer berating the disabled man for rolling his wheelchair over his foot.
Another officer is present during the encounter, but it is unclear in the videos whether he is helping the officer to push over the man or if he is helping the man right his wheelchair.
Gatpandan said investigations have been launched by the San Francisco Police Department's Internal Affairs Division as well as the city's Office of Citizen Complaints, but said she was unable to release the identities of the officers who were involved in the incident. She said no officers have been placed on leave in connection with the incident.
