The SF Public Defender's Office filed a complaint this week with the city's Department of Police Accountability in connection with an August 2025 incident in which they say two men were wrongfully detained and abused at the hands of police in the Hunters Point neighborhood.

According to the complaint, SFPD officers were called to the area just before midnight on August 30, 2025 by a woman whose car had broken down. She told officers that her boyfriend had been physically abusing her and had just run off. She reportedly told the officers that her boyfriend was "Black, 5’5” tall, with curly hair, and wearing a black hoodie with red rhinestones in a spider design, as well as black sweats and Crocs." She also reportedly told the officers that he may have run to his grandmother's house on Quesada Avenue.

The officers then began searching the area and spotted a 22-year-old Black man on Quesada Avenue who is 5-foot-two-inches tall and who was wearing a brown hoodie with white lettering, and white sweatpants. Despite not matching the description, the Public Defender's Office says that the officers pursued the man, who is not being publicly identified because charges against him were dismissed.

The 22-year-old reportedly then ran into the nearby home of his friend, 23-year-old Carlos Espana-Quintanilla. The officers pursued him into the home, and the Public Defender's Office says the 22-year-old repeatedly told officers he had done nothing wrong. Espana-Quintanilla reportedly tried to defend his friend and was holding onto his shirt and refusing to let go. When the SFPD officers tried to separate the two men, per the complaint, one officer allegedly shoved Espana-Quintanilla by the neck with two hands.

As more officers arrived on the scene, the complaint alleges that the 22-year-old was "pinned" to the side of the house and "body-slammed... onto the cement," causing injuries to his nose and chin.

Espana-Quintanilla, meanwhile, was allegedly punched multiple times and shoved onto a bed inside his home, and when his wheelchair-bound sister attempted to intervene to defend her brother, the complaint says she was pepper-sprayed by an officer at close range.

Espana-Quintanilla was reportedly crying out for his mother as he was then taken into custody.

Espana-Quintanilla was later charged with resisting arrest and battery on an officer, but those charges were later dismissed after a court found the officers had not acted lawfully. He was defended by the Public Defender's Office, and a judge reviewed body camera footage from the incident.

The 22-year-old was charged with one misdemeanor count of resisting arrest, and that charge was also later dismissed.

"These SFPD officers compounded their profound errors with violence," says Brian Cox, head of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office Integrity Unit. "They pursued the 22-year-old to his friend’s house—even though, aside from being Black, he had no resemblance to a suspect they were looking for. From there, they violently intruded into a family function and made arrests, shoving the 22-year-old’s face into the sidewalk in the process. Family members protested and demanded to know why police were there, and officers pepper sprayed them."

The complaint alleges that the SFPD officers engaged in racial profiling and lacked reasonable suspicion to detain the 22-year-old, and that they "had ample time to see and realize" that the man did not match their suspect description.

Further, the Public Defender's Office says the officers should be held accountable for the use of excessive force against both the 22-year-old and Espana-Quintanilla, and the illegal detainment of Espana-Quintanilla. The officers are also accused of entering the home of Espana-Quintanilla without a warrant.

As Mission Local reported Wednesdsay, the SFPD has declined to comment on the incident or the complaint.

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