@kron4news pic.twitter.com/9vq5O9Fk7t
— MAVolousONE (@MAVolousONE) July 30, 2015
A handcuffed man is dead and two San Francisco Police officers have been injured after a vehicle collision on Lombard Street took a bizarre and violent turn.
According to SFPD spokesperson Officer Carlos Manfredi, at 5:30 this morning police were called to a three-car crash at Francisco Street and Richardson Avenue.
The Chron reports that a driver had "rear-ended another vehicle, pushing it across the street and into parked cars." When one of the crash victims got out to talk to the driver responsible for the collision, the driver hit the victim and "appeared incoherent and was making 'disturbing statements.'"
The victim called 911 as the driver, described by the Ex as a black man "who appeared to be at least 6-foot-3 and more than 250 pounds," fled from the scene. The responding officers located the driver at Lombard and Pierce Street, near the Surf Motel, "but before they did, the suspect fought four officers and injured two of them in the process," Manfredi says.
The Ex reports that the altercation between the man and the two cops was violent enough to knock down a fence in the area. During the scrum, one officer injured her head after being knocked over, and another was punched in the face.
“He threw one officer to the ground and punched another officer several times,” Northern Police Station Capt. Greg McEachern said.
A witness to the altercation tells the Ex that officers "took something out, they were beating on him.”
Area resident Willie Gunnari told the Ex that “Nothing [the officers] did phased this guy at all...They were really whacking the shit out of him. I could hear it in their voice, they were scared for their lives.”
Briefly evading police, the man crossed Pierce and banged on the door of the IHOP at 2299 Lombard Street, "but the manager wouldn’t let him in," the Chron reports.
By then, six to eight officers had arrived. They subdued the man and handcuffed him.
"Medics were called to treat everyone at the scene," Manfredi says, but "While medics were en route, the suspect stopped breathing."
"Officers immediately rendered first aid/CPR at the scene, however the suspect subsequently died."
Prince Tenefrancia, an IHOP restaurant server, told CBS5 that "he didn’t hear any gunshots during the incident, but saw emergency responders 'trying to do CPR for a while'" on the deceased man.
The man's cause of death is unknown at this time, Manifredi said. He did not have any details on the injuries sustained by the man during the arrest.
Both of the female officers were taken to UCSF Medical Center to be treated for their injuries, Manfredi says. Their injuries are not considered life-threatening.
The deceased man's identity has yet to be released. Manfredi says that an investigation into his death is ongoing.