San Francisco city attorneys have responded to a lawsuit by the family of Mario Woods by arguing that San Francisco Police Officers were justified in the shooting that killed Mario Woods.
Breitbart News previously reported that Woods was shot December 2 after refusing to drop a knife after less-than-lethal measures like bean bags and pepper spray were used in seeking compliance.
ABC 7 News quoted San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr explaining that officers approached Woods after receiving a call on a stabbing. Suhr said officers order Woods to drop the knife but he would not. “They employed the standard beanbag gun several times,” said Suhr, “striking the suspect; he did not drop the weapon, they called for higher-powered, less lethal, that was deployed it actually knocked the suspect to the ground, he did not drop the knife, he got up again.”
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Woods’ family filed a federal civil rights suit, claiming “video footage of the encounter shows officers firing at the 26-year-old man from all sides, even though he was shuffling slowly along a wall and did not directly threaten the police.” But city attorneys say the shooting was justified; that Woods brought the use of lethal measures on himself by refusing to drop the knife when asked to do so.
Deputy City Attorney Sean Connolly wrote, “Failing to surrender peacefully, Woods posed an imminent threat to bystanders and officers. Woods, while still armed with a weapon, attempted to flee by walking past the officers and toward the area where numerous bystanders congregated.”
The Chronicle reports that toxicology reports on Woods’ blood at the time of the shooting showed “A blood toxicology exam found that at the time of his death, Woods had methamphetamine, marijuana, cough medicine, antidepressants, caffeine and nicotine in his system..”
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.