Civil rights activists demand SF's DA file murder charges against police involved in fatal shootings

SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - Civil rights advocates are demanding that the San Francisco District 's Attorney file murder charges against police officers involved in several deadly officer involved shootings over the past few years.

The protesters made their case on the front steps of the Hall of Justice at noon today and then later marched upstairs to DA George Gascon's office.

They said they were angry and frustrated that Gascon's office has a track record of taking 611 days to make a charging decision with regards to fatal officer involved shootings, citing a recent a Civil Grand Jury Report.

Demonstrators said it only took two days for a charging decision to be made in the case of an officer-involved shooting in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In neighboring Alameda County, the DA's office says that over the past two years, charging decisions have taken less than half that time. In San Mateo County, DA Steve Wagstaffe told KTVU it's never been longer than 10 weeks.

"We the black and brown people are are united and we are not going to allow for this to happen ever again to our people!" yelled activist Cristina Gutierrez.

The protesters say District Attorney George Gascon has taken too long to make a prosecuting decision on the officers responsible for the deadly shootings of Jessica Nelson and Luis Gongora Pat, who were both killed this past spring. They also said that Gascon should have already made a decision on the case of Mario Woods, whose killing was caught on cell phone video that went viral last December.

The group also wants the DA to reverse his decision on the Alex Nieto case and charge those officers.
"White lives matter!" yelled protesters. The group says SFPD showed restraint when it peacefully ended a six hour standoff with an armed white man at the Civic Center this weekend..

"White lives matter!!! In San Francisco, as they should matter! The problem is we now are confirmed that black brown lives absolutely don't matter!" said Christopher Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, San Francisco Bay Area minister.

This past July, however, SFPD officers did bring in an armed black man safely into custody after a four-hour long standoff near Market Street.

"Our supernatural patience has run out," yelled Muhammad.

"The facts are since 2011 [there's been] 18 [fatal officer involved shooting] cases and your average time for the DA to make a decision a letter of decision is over two years."

SF DA spokesperson Max Szabodisputed that figure, saying that it was only 445 days. "You may have heard that we recently received additional resources to ensure that these case are processed, [are investigated] more quickly," Szabo said. "And so we expect that this whole..."

"Justice delayed is justice denied!" interrupted the crowd.

The protesters insinuated that Gascon was delaying his charging decisions because this is an election year, an allegation Gascon's spokesperson has vehemently denied in the past.

"We don't want to conclude that this is political maneuvering to hurry up and get through the election season," said Muhammad. "It may just be somebody's left a piece of chicken over there that we're smelling so we don't know fully what we're smelling but it doesn't smell right!"