Acting SF police chief meets with Bayview community leaders

Acting San Francisco police Chief Toney Chaplin faced tough questioning by Bayview community leaders Monday evening where residents asked for answers in last week’s officer-involved shooting that led to former Chief Greg Suhr’s resignation. At an invitation-only meeting at the Southeast Community Facility, nearly 50 leaders lobbied Chaplin to rebuild trust between the predominantly African American neighborhood and officers. A day after the shooting, Chaplin announced the rollout of body cameras and a reworking of the existing use-of-force policy were his top priorities as he vowed to launch a “top-to-bottom” department review. “The image, the brand of this city, has been ruined around the world behind these senseless killings of human life,” the Rev. Amos Brown, president of the local NAACP, told Chaplin. Police opened the meeting with a brief overview of the ongoing investigation into Thursday’s shooting at Shafter Avenue and Elmira Street. Commander Greg McEachern told Bayview leaders that two witnesses were being interviewed in the investigation of Williams’ death, which happened after she crashed an allegedly stolen car into a pickup truck in an attempt to flee officers.