San Francisco police sued by Guatemalan parents of immigrant shot dead

US | Fri Apr 24, 2015 11:15pm EDT
Related: U.S.

San Francisco police sued by Guatemalan parents of immigrant shot dead
SAN FRANCISCO | By Emmett Berg


(Reuters) - The Guatemalan parents of an immigrant man shot dead by San Francisco police have filed suit in federal court, accusing two officers of excessive force and the police chief and city of failing in their training and oversight responsibilities.

Amilcar Perez Lopez, 20, died on the evening of Feb. 26 after plainclothes police officers shot him six times in San Francisco’s trendy Mission District. Police have said Perez Lopez had acted erratically and threatened officers with a knife.

The complaint filed on Friday in U.S. District Court referred to a television interview given from the scene by San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr, who told KCBS-TV that Perez Lopez “lunged at the officer with knife overhead.”

But the lawsuit asserted that Perez Lopez, a construction worker and Guatemalan immigrant, was trying to flee from a man who was taunting him when two plainclothes policemen grabbed him from behind.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/25/us-usa-police-sanfrancisco-idUSKBN0NG05F20150425?rpc=401