San Francisco cop who shot unarmed Black man charged with manslaughter

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A police officer who shot a mentally ill, unarmed Black man on his front steps in 2017 — inflicting a wound that caused the man's death three years later — will be prosecuted for manslaughter, San Francisco prosecutors announced Tuesday.

San Francisco police officer Kenneth Cha shot Sean Moore, who suffered from schizophrenia, twice in the stomach on his front steps on Jan. 6, 2017, after Moore told Cha and his partner to “get the fuck off my stairs.” Moore later died in prison from the gunshot wound.

“After a thorough investigation, my office is holding Officer Cha accountable for the death of Sean Moore, whom he lacked a lawful basis to even arrest,” San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin said in a statement Tuesday. “When officers inflict unwarranted violence in flagrant disregard of their training, it denigrates the hard work of other police officers and shatters the trust our community places in law enforcement. Rebuilding that trust requires us to hold those officers who inflict unlawful violence accountable.”

Cha and his partner Colin Patino were investigating a report that Moore had violated a restraining order to stop harassing his neighbor. When the officers showed up at Moore’s Oceanview neighborhood home at around 4 a.m., Moore denied banging on a wall separating his and his neighbor’s homes. Moore repeatedly told the officers to leave. Instead of departing, the officers re-ascended the front steps, ordered Moore to step outside his front gate and, when he did, Cha pepper sprayed Moore in the face and Patino hit him with a baton. Moore responded by punching Patino, breaking his nose, and kicking Cha down the steps before Cha took out his gun and shot the unarmed man twice in the stomach. The incident was captured by police body camera video.

Moore died in January 2020 at San Quentin state prison while serving time for unrelated offenses. An autopsy released in July last year found the 46-year-old's death stemmed from a gunshot wound to his abdomen.

On Tuesday, Boudin’s office charged Cha with manslaughter, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and enhancements for personal use of a firearm and infliction of great bodily injury.

“We rely on officers to follow their training and to deescalate situations; instead, in just eight minutes, Officer Cha elevated a nonviolent encounter to one that took Sean Moore’s life,” Boudin said. “Sean Moore was unarmed and at his own home when Officer Cha shot him twice.”

Tony Montoya, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, defended Cha in a statement Tuesday.

"Officers responded to a call for service and encountered the very hostile Sean Moore who was accused of violating a restraining order,” Montoya said. “We support Officer Cha's constitutionally protected right to present his defense against these charges that stemmed from this extremely volatile incident that an autopsy concluded took Mr. Moore's life while he was serving time in prison on another matter."

In a statement Tuesday, Cha’s attorney Scott Burrell noted that prosecutors previously pressed charges against Moore for the "violent assault" on officers Cha and Patino. He suggested the decision to prosecute his client was made for political reasons by a progressive district attorney who faces a potential recall election next year.

"The facts of this case have never changed," Burrell said. "Officer Cha lawfully shot his firearm while defending himself and his partner against a dangerous and violent assault. Only naked politics at best are at play here."

The filing of charges comes nearly two months after the city agreed to settle a civil rights lawsuit filed by Moore and his parents, who replaced Moore as plaintiffs after their son’s death. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a $3.25 million settlement for Moore’s family on Sept. 7. The settlement was first announced in April, a few weeks before a jury trial was scheduled to start on June 21.

Adante Pointer, an attorney representing Moore's family in the lawsuit, said Moore's mother Loyce Amos Moore looks forward to officer Cha being held responsible for her son's death.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Pointer said in a phone interview. “They look forward to actually seeing him convicted and then sentenced for what he’s done.”

Pointer said Moore’s father, Cele Davis Moore, passed away after his son died.

“His father also passed away with a grieving heart," Pointer said. "The mother has been very strong. She’s very happy to now feel like there’s a chance of closure around this."

Moore was charged with assaulting the two officers, but those charges were dropped after a First Appellate District panel ruled in 2018 that Cha and Patino were not lawfully performing their duties when they attacked Moore on his front porch.

In that decision, the court found the officers’ “refusal to leave Moore’s home when he repeatedly demanded that they do so” transformed their attempt at a “consensual encounter” to investigate a potential crime into an unlawful detention. Because they never witnessed Moore violate the restraining order, the officers had no probable cause to detain or arrest him, the court concluded.

This is the second case in which Boudin, who ran on a progressive platform promising criminal justice reform and police accountability, has pressed charges against an officer for a fatal police shooting.

Last year, Boudin filed manslaughter charges against former officer Chris Samayoa for shooting and killing 42-year-old Keita “Iggy” O’Neil as he ran away from a stolen vehicle in December 2017. That case remains pending.

Boudin has also filed charges against officer Terrance Stengel for beating a Black man, Dacari Spiers, with a baton in October 2019. Additionally, Boudin re-filed charges against two Alameda County sheriff’s deputies accused of beating a man in a San Francisco alleyway at the end of a high-speed chase in November 2015.

Boudin, a former public defender, faces a likely recall election next year after critics of his reform policies submitted more than enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in October.

Follow @NicholasIovino

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