Video - San Francisco: Mother of Shot Carjacker Files Suit Against Cop

Could the US courts have another case on their hands which will divide a nation like it did during the Kathryn Steinle and Trayvon Martin judgments? Too early to tell probably, but what to think of a rookie cop who shoots a carjacker and then gets sued for murder.

42-year-old Mr Keita “Iggy” O’Neil carjacked a California Lottery van on Potrero Hill on 1 December. He shoved the van driver to the ground and stole the car. Afterwards, he was pursued by the police to the corner of Fitzgerald Avenue and Griffith Street and then reached a dead end. Mr O’Neill got out of the vehicle and was shot by Police Officer Mr Christopher Samayoa. These are the facts, and they are not in dispute.

According to the mother of the carjacker, the rookie San Francisco police officer who as on the job only for four days ‘executed’ her son. The family’s lawsuit states that “unreasonable and unjustifiable deadly force” was used.

Mr John Burris, the lawyer representing O’Neil’s mother, stated: “It is without question a most shocking evidence of police brutality.”

“It was not a panic shooting. It’s flat-out deliberate, premeditated murder.”

Furthermore, the O’Neil lawsuit also states that “neither officer had their body cameras activated during the pursuit, a violation of department policy.”

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The San Francisco City Attorney, Mr Dennis Herrera countered by declaring that Mr O’Neil was “driving a van that had been carjacked, the driver of the van had been assaulted and O’Neil was leading the police on a high-speed chase.”

“The lawsuit admits that when O’Neil finally stopped the van, he got out and ran toward the police car.”

Source:

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Suit-filed-in-fatal-shooting-by-rookie-SF-cop-of-12442736.php