San Francisco police to hold public meeting after shooting
By Nathan Salant 6 hours ago in Crime .
San Francisco - San Francisco police have called a public meeting Tuesday evening to respond to public concerns over Sunday's officer-involved fatal shooting outside Mission Station on Valencia Street.
Police Chief Greg Suhr called the meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Cornerstone Church at 3459 17th St., after injuries suffered by Bay Area resident Matthew Hoffman proved fatal.
Hoffman, 32, was shot Sunday when he refused to leave an off-limits parking area at Mission Station on Valencia Street, and reportedly pulled out a BB gun, accor5ding to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. The church is around the corner from the police station.
San Francisco Police Dept. spokesman Albie Esparza said Monday that the shooting occurred at around 5:15 p.m. Sunday outside the station at 630 Valencia St.
Hoffman was taken by ambulance to San Francisco General Hospital, where he died.
Suhr said Hoffman was spotted by officers as he walked through the restricted parking lot, which is marked as off-limits to the public but not locked, and that three officers told him to leave.
But he did not, Suhr said, prompting the officers to return and tell Hoffman to leave the area. “He went to his waistband, where there was the butt of a gun, and drew a weapon," Suhr said. "Two sergeants fired and hit him three times,” he said. The gun was later discovered to have been a BB gun, Suhr said.
Police cordoned off Valencia Street, a busy thoroughfare that runs from just west of the city's downtown through the heavily populated Mission District, for a few hours Sunday night.
Suhr acknowledged that police in San Francisco, like in departments around the country, have a heightened sense of concern for officer safety in light of ongoing civil unrest that has followed police-involved shootings in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City, the newspaper said.
“This is a job where very sadly we lose officers -- it's on all our minds,” Suhr said.
"But we’ve got a job to do, so we’re going to do it,” he said.
Officers involved in the shooting were not injured but were placed on 10 days of administrative leave, the newspaper said.
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