The San Francisco district attorney who replaced recalled Soros-backed prosecutor Chesa Boudin last year has dropped “historic” manslaughter charges against a San Francisco policeman who shot and killed a carjacking suspect in 2017.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said that the investigation carried out by Boudin’s office included “internal conflicts.” Jenkins said “the charges were filed just before the statute of limitations for manslaughter was to expire and the warrant was signed by an investigator who had been assigned to the case days earlier — while the longtime lead investigator was on vacation,” according to ABC News.
“The irregularities and facts that have come to light surrounding the case against officer Samayoa suggest that the charges were not filed in good faith, appear to have been politically-motivated, and have made it impossible for us to proceed forward with this prosecution,” Jenkins said in a statement Friday.
In other words, Boudin wanted to use the case of the young officer — three days on the job — to advance his radical, anti-police agenda.
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But Boudin is standing by his “politically motivated” prosecution. “It’s clear Jenkins has been coordinating with the officer’s defense team to avoid a public hearing on the disturbing facts of the case,” he said. “She is scapegoating me to try to divert attention from what this decision ultimately reveals about her: Jenkins will not hold everyone equally accountable under the law, she is deeply politically motivated, and she does not care about victims of police violence.”
Jenkins, who is black, isn’t likely to refuse to hold a white police officer accountable unless there is gross malfeasance in her predecessor’s prosecution of the case.
O’Neil, who died at a hospital, was suspected of assaulting a California Lottery employee and stealing a van that belonged to the agency. Police said they chased the van and another SUV seen traveling with it to a public housing area. O’Neil abandoned the stolen vehicle and started running toward the patrol car occupied by Samayoa, who was in the passenger seat, and his training officer.
Body camera footage shows Samayoa drawing his pistol while the cruiser was still moving. The video then shows him opening the side door and firing a single shot through the window as O’Neil runs by in the opposite direction. O’Neil, who died later at a hospital, was not armed.
An attorney for O’Neil’s family, Brian Ford, called Jenkins’ decision to drop the charges “shameful and cowardly.”
It may have been a questionable shoot, but manslaughter? The suspect was fleeing after assaulting someone. If Samayoa had waited to find out if O’Neil was armed, he very well might have ended up on the coroner’s slab instead.
But the facts didn’t matter to Boudin. He was trying to show the police department that “historic” changes had begun and he was going to throw the book at the police while allowing criminals to walk.
Jenkins asked California Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate the shooting at the urging of O’Neil’s parents. Samayoa will probably not get a fair hearing by the AG either, given the volatility of this issue.
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