The SFPD released surveillance video from two cameras at the Subway shop on mid-Market Street where an officer-involved shooting happened last week, on May 3, claiming the life of stabbing suspect Nicholas Flusche, 26. As CBS 5 reports, the department showed the videos at the town hall meeting that was held Wednesday morning at a location near the incident, in addition to footage from body-worn cameras from the responding officers.
As we learned earlier, two officers who were already in the area were flagged down and came to the sandwich shop as an attack was in progress, leaving a Subway employee injured. Officer Kenneth Cha, the same officer who was involved in a controversial shooting of an unarmed civilian in January, shot the fatal shot that killed Flusche, who apparently refused to drop his weapon.
The videos above and below show multiple bystanders, including a woman who may have been a second Subway employee, trying to intervene in the scuffle which was happening behind the counter of the store. The woman can be seen trying to fend off the man identified as Flusche by hitting him with various objects including what appears to be a tray used in the restaurant's sandwich toaster.
Several other people also can be seen intervening, including a man in a black tank top near the point that the SFPD officers arrived officers said they arrived to find three men engaged in a fight.
According to Cmdr. Greg McEachern, via CBS 5, "The stabbing victim and the other man came out from behind the counter and Flusche allegedly followed after them with a knife in his hand, at which point one officer fired one shot, striking him."
The moment of the shooting can't be seen in either video, though the body camera footage may be released later.
Newly installed Police Chief William Scott said at the meeting that the footage was being released today as part of the department's commitment to transparency. He did not comment on whether the shooting was justified, but, per CBS 5, said that "multiple agencies are investigating it, including police, internal affairs, the Office of Citizen Complaints, the district attorney’s office and the medical examiner’s office."
"We want to get it right, we want to be transparent, and we want to report the facts as they are," Scott said today.
Previously: Town Hall Wednesday Morning To Provide Update On SFPD Shooting Of Man Who Stabbed Subway Staffer