SFO Police Shot Man in Back, Contradicting Chief’s “Lunging” Claims,

Another case of a man “lunging” towards police officers with a knife has proven to be false by an autopsy.

The autopsy, conducted by the San Francisco Medical Examiner, proves Amilcar Perez Lopez was shot four times in the back by San Francisco police exactly one year ago today.

![](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/maven-user-photos/pinacnews/police-brutality/LhlGTxQVnU-jb5b_cF6-uA/gFUYXeDoFUSS4wnJ-Ytsig)

At the time, San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr told reporters that Lopez made them fear for their lives, according to a [__San Francisco Examiner article__](http://archives.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/facts-remain-fuzzy-in-fatal-police-shooting-of-immigrant-in-mission/Content?oid=2922161) last year.

> Suhr said police were called regarding a report of a man with a 12-inch blade chasing someone at 24th and Folsom streets Thursday evening. Two plainclothes officers wearing identification badges arrived to find a victim with a bicycle and suspect on opposite sides of a parked car.
>

> Suhr said the officers told the suspect to drop the knife several times before he allegedly slashed at an officer, causing him to jump back. Both officers again instructed the suspect to drop the weapon before they fired six shots at the man when he again lunged at them, the chief said.

But now San Francisco police are not saying much after two autopsies, including a private autopsy commissioned by the victim’s family last year, prove the Guatemalan immigrant was shot four times in the back, including at least once in the back of the head.

This is what the [__San Francisco Examiner__](http://www.sfexaminer.com/second-autopsy-affirms-guatemalan-immigrant-shot-back-police/) is reporting today after obtaining the second autopsy this week:

> A second autopsy of a young Guatemalan immigrant who was shot dead one year ago today by San Francisco police appears to contradict Police Chief Greg Suhr’s initial claims about the shooting.
> The autopsy, conducted by the Medical Examiner’s Office and obtained Thursday by the San Francisco Examiner, mirrors the findings of an independent autopsy conducted after Amilcar Perez Lopez, 20, was fatally shot by officers in the Mission district on Feb. 26, 2015.
> The independent autopsy was commissioned by attorneys for the Perez Lopez family, who filed a civil rights lawsuit against The City, Suhr and the officers involved in the shooting, alleging that officers Craig Tiffe and Eric Reboli used excessive force and caused the wrongful death of Perez Lopez.
> “This case is truly significant because the contrast between their version and the physical evidence is so stark,” said Arnoldo Casillas, the lead attorney in the case. “We’ve got our autopsy and their autopsy that show the bullets hit him in the back.”

Not only did Perez Lopez not speak English, the two cops were in plainclothes, which has many San Francisco residents questioning whether he even knew they were cops.

Witnesses have said he was “running for his life,” according to the [__Guardian.__](http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/02/amilcar-perez-lopez-san-francisco-police-killing) But like the victim, the witnesses were in the country illegally and have been “driven underground.”

However, those who knew him said he was a hard-working man who would work 22 hour shifts in construction.

> “He left Guatemala with $200 in his pocket. He took the buses up to Mexico. He worked in Mexico for two months, and then he just kept his thought, ‘I’m going to get to the United States.’”
> Perez-Lopez was homeless for his first weeks in San Francisco but soon met Roman, a Nicaraguan national, who helped get him a job at a local construction firm. The two spent almost every day together, working back-breaking shifts to install central heating systems around the city, and then taking more private construction jobs after they clocked off. They started early, at 5am, and worked six day weeks. On occasion they would complete 22-hour shifts.
> Kevin Born, the owner of Ashbury General Contracting and Engineering where Amilcar worked his day job remembers him as “a hard working, mild-mannered guy” who “never got into any confrontations”.“He was paying $300 rent to live on a cot in a boiler room. He didn’t even have a bed,” said Born. “One of the things he was most excited about was he had just found a new room and he was going to be able to buy his brothers and sisters presents that he could keep safe. This is the kind of guy, this is where his motivations were. How much more honorable could somebody be?”

The two cops who killed him, Eric Reboli and Craig Tiffe, were named in a 2009 lawsuit accusing them and two other officers of viciously beating and kicking a man named David Magana after mistaking him for a suspect. The lawsuit was dismissed, according to the Guardian.

Another case of a man “lunging” towards police officers with a knife has proven to be false by an autopsy.

The autopsy, conducted by the San Francisco Medical Examiner, proves Amilcar Perez Lopez was shot four times in the back by San Francisco police exactly one year ago today.

![](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/maven-user-photos/pinacnews/police-brutality/LhlGTxQVnU-jb5b_cF6-uA/gFUYXeDoFUSS4wnJ-Ytsig)

At the time, San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr told reporters that Lopez made them fear for their lives, according to a [__San Francisco Examiner article__](http://archives.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/facts-remain-fuzzy-in-fatal-police-shooting-of-immigrant-in-mission/Content?oid=2922161) last year.

> Suhr said police were called regarding a report of a man with a 12-inch blade chasing someone at 24th and Folsom streets Thursday evening. Two plainclothes officers wearing identification badges arrived to find a victim with a bicycle and suspect on opposite sides of a parked car.
>

> Suhr said the officers told the suspect to drop the knife several times before he allegedly slashed at an officer, causing him to jump back. Both officers again instructed the suspect to drop the weapon before they fired six shots at the man when he again lunged at them, the chief said.

But now San Francisco police are not saying much after two autopsies, including a private autopsy commissioned by the victim’s family last year, prove the Guatemalan immigrant was shot four times in the back, including at least once in the back of the head.

This is what the [__San Francisco Examiner__](http://www.sfexaminer.com/second-autopsy-affirms-guatemalan-immigrant-shot-back-police/) is reporting today after obtaining the second autopsy this week:

> A second autopsy of a young Guatemalan immigrant who was shot dead one year ago today by San Francisco police appears to contradict Police Chief Greg Suhr’s initial claims about the shooting.
> The autopsy, conducted by the Medical Examiner’s Office and obtained Thursday by the San Francisco Examiner, mirrors the findings of an independent autopsy conducted after Amilcar Perez Lopez, 20, was fatally shot by officers in the Mission district on Feb. 26, 2015.
> The independent autopsy was commissioned by attorneys for the Perez Lopez family, who filed a civil rights lawsuit against The City, Suhr and the officers involved in the shooting, alleging that officers Craig Tiffe and Eric Reboli used excessive force and caused the wrongful death of Perez Lopez.
> “This case is truly significant because the contrast between their version and the physical evidence is so stark,” said Arnoldo Casillas, the lead attorney in the case. “We’ve got our autopsy and their autopsy that show the bullets hit him in the back.”

Not only did Perez Lopez not speak English, the two cops were in plainclothes, which has many San Francisco residents questioning whether he even knew they were cops.

Witnesses have said he was “running for his life,” according to the [__Guardian.__](http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/02/amilcar-perez-lopez-san-francisco-police-killing) But like the victim, the witnesses were in the country illegally and have been “driven underground.”

However, those who knew him said he was a hard-working man who would work 22 hour shifts in construction.

> “He left Guatemala with $200 in his pocket. He took the buses up to Mexico. He worked in Mexico for two months, and then he just kept his thought, ‘I’m going to get to the United States.’”
> Perez-Lopez was homeless for his first weeks in San Francisco but soon met Roman, a Nicaraguan national, who helped get him a job at a local construction firm. The two spent almost every day together, working back-breaking shifts to install central heating systems around the city, and then taking more private construction jobs after they clocked off. They started early, at 5am, and worked six day weeks. On occasion they would complete 22-hour shifts.
> Kevin Born, the owner of Ashbury General Contracting and Engineering where Amilcar worked his day job remembers him as “a hard working, mild-mannered guy” who “never got into any confrontations”.“He was paying $300 rent to live on a cot in a boiler room. He didn’t even have a bed,” said Born. “One of the things he was most excited about was he had just found a new room and he was going to be able to buy his brothers and sisters presents that he could keep safe. This is the kind of guy, this is where his motivations were. How much more honorable could somebody be?”

The two cops who killed him, Eric Reboli and Craig Tiffe, were named in a 2009 lawsuit accusing them and two other officers of viciously beating and kicking a man named David Magana after mistaking him for a suspect. The lawsuit was dismissed, according to the Guardian.

Support our Mission

Help us build a database of bad cops

For almost 15 years, PINAC News has remained active despite continuous efforts by the government and Big Tech to shut us down by either arresting us for lawful activity or by restricting access to our readers under the pretense that we write about “social issues.”

Since we are forbidden from discussing social issues on social media, we have created forums on our site to allow us to fulfill our mission with as little restriction as possible. We welcome our readers to join our forums and support our mission by either donating, volunteering or both.

Our plan is to build a national database of bad cops obtained from public records maintained by local prosecutors. The goal is to teach our readers how to obtain these lists to ensure we cover every city, county and state in the country.

After all, the government has made it clear it will not police the police so the role falls upon us.

It will be our most ambitious project yet but it can only be done with your help.

But if we succeed, we will be able to keep innocent people out of prison.

Please make a donation below or click on side tab to learn more about our mission.

Subscribe to PINAC

Bypass Big Tech censorship.

Carlos Miller
Carlos Millerhttps://pinacnews.com
Editor-in-Chief Carlos Miller spent a decade covering the cop beat for various newspapers in the Southwest before returning to his hometown Miami and launching Photography is Not a Crime aka PINAC News in 2007. He also published a book, The Citizen Journalist's Photography Handbook, which is available on Amazon.

Leave a Reply

- Advertisement -

Latest articles