An African American man was shot and killed in a barrage of gunfire by several police officers in San Francisco, California, which was partially captured on video by a bystander.
At least 8 officers fatally shot Mario Woods, 26, several times on Wednesday after he ignored commands to drop a knife, San Francisco police Sergeant Michael Andraychak said.
Woods continued to hold the knife after an officer shot him several times with a pellets gun, meant to be nonlethal, Andraychak said.
The 15-second video clip uploaded to social media on Wednesday shows the man staggering alongside the wall of a building before the camera pulls away while at least 15 gunshots can be heard on the recording.
On Thursday, community activists and lawyers questioned the police response after watching the video.
“There could have been other ways to subdue him,” said Chris Richard, a community activist who is organizing public meetings with police to discuss the shooting.
San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi said that the man “was not posing a direct threat” it was not necessary for the officers to shoot.
It was the third fatal shooting by police in San Francisco since two officers shot and killed a man in October after they said he allegedly grabbed one of the officer’s guns.
“The incidents are stacking up,” Adachi said.
Wood’s mother said police executed her son, who she said suffered from mental illness but was struggling to turn his life around.
“He needed some help. He just needed some help,” Gwen Woods told ABC News as she grieved. “It was a better way of handling it than to put 25 bullets in my baby.”
The latest incident comes amid heightened tensions over several high-profile killings of unarmed African Americans by white police officers in the last two years, which have triggered large-scale protests across the country.
