In a totally bizarre twist to the officer-involved shooting that occurred in the parking lot of the SFPD's Mission Station on Sunday evening, the department has just released a suicide note apparently penned by the man they killed.
With the permission of the father of the 32-year-old victim, the SFPD has just released the note, as first reported by SF Weekly.
The man, who has not yet been publicly identified, apparently had multiple "suicide notes" written on his phone, one of which was titled "Dear Officers."
It goes like this:
Dear Officer(s),You did nothing wrong. You ended the life of a man who was too much of a coward to do it himself. I provoked you. I threatened your life as well as the lives of those around me. You were completely within your legal rights to do what you did. You followed protocols. You did everything right. I just want to find peace within myself. I am so sad and I am so lonely. There is no place for me here. Please, don’t blame yourself. I used you. I took advantage of you. I am so lost and I am so hopeless. God made a mistake with me. I shouldn’t be here. Please, take solace in knowing that the situation was out of your control. You had no other choice.
As SFist reported yesterday, the man approached Mission Station around 5 p.m. Sunday and drew what appeared to be a weapon on several officers. He was shot three times and fatally wounded, and the weapon turned out to be a "replica" handgun.
The incident comes at a bad time for community-police relations, but this twist appears to absolve officers of culpability if there was any doubt about what took place.
Nevertheless a town hall meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Corner Stone Church (3459 17th Street). Police Chief Suhr will release be releasing more details about this ongoing investigation at the meeting, and presumably sharing this suicide note.
Here's a better description of what happened, via the New York Times:
The man had been loitering in the parking lot of a police station in San Francisco’s Mission district at 5 p.m. on Sunday. Three officers spotted him and told him to leave the lot, which is closed to the public, according to Sgt. Monica Macdonald of the San Francisco Police Department.At first, the man backed away, but then he stood blocking the driveway and staring at the officers, the police said. The officers got out of their cars and approached him, again asking him to put his hands up and leave the restricted area.
The man backed away with his hands in his shirt, the police said. When he reached the street, he lifted his shirt, revealing what appeared to be the butt of a handgun in his waistband, Sergeant Macdonald said.
He reached for the weapon, the police said, at which point two of the officers opened fire, hitting the man multiple times. The gun was later found to be an airsoft gun, capable of shooting pellets or BBs but not bullets. It did not have an orange handle identifying it as a toy, the police said.
Previously: Man With Fake Gun Is Shot, Killed By SFPD