Newly released video footage shows a San Francisco police sergeant shooting and killing Zhanyuan Yang, 31, soon after Yang drove his car into the Chinese consulate.
Sergeant Troy Carrasco, who was the first member of SFPD to respond to the scene on Oct. 9, can be seen, through his body-worn camera footage, running into the consulate, where Yang had driven his blue Honda Civic into the lobby.
A security guard had already deployed pepper spray, police said today, and those present in the consulate were coughing as Carrasco arrived. Carrasco walked directly to Yang — who, like the others there, appears to be standing still near a wall and rubbing his eyes — and pinned him to the wall. A consulate security guard’s arm can be seen in the video frame, and appears to be helping to pin Yang against the wall.
“You got a gun?” Carrasco asked Yang, whose face was turned toward the wall.
No gun was recovered, but Yang did have a 3.5 inch knife, which he began swinging behind his back and then toward Carrasco.
Carrasco then jumped back, pulled his gun, and fired two shots at Yang’s back at close range, just as two additional police officers arrived on the scene. Carrasco apparently fell backward onto the ground and could be heard coughing from the pepper spray.
The shooting occurred 20 seconds after Carrasco walked through the consulate’s doors, and within 10 seconds of making contact with Yang. After the shooting, Yang was taken to a local hospital, where he died.
Carrasco was awarded a silver medal of valor in 2012, and records show he has been employed by the police department since the 1990s.
In Yang’s car, a crossbow was sitting across the back seat but, despite one 911 caller reporting he had a gun, no gun was found, police said today.
He reportedly had several replica firearms in his apartment in the Inner Sunset, and had been heard by a witness shouting, “Where is the CCP?” after he drove his car into the consulate.
“You guys shoulda told me he had a knife!” Carrasco could be heard shouting after the shooting.
When asked by a public commenter why the situation was not deescalated, or why the officer did not stay distanced from Yang before approaching, Police Chief Bill Scott called the situation an “active attacker” situation.
“If an officer believes that this event has the makings of an active attacker, what we train them to do is to stop the threat immediately,” Scott said.
Scott has stated that the police department is consulting with the U.S. State Department to investigate the shooting, as it technically occurred on foreign soil, but that the SFPD had been granted authority to investigate the case.
Multiple independent agencies are investigating the shooting, including the SFPD’s internal affairs division, the Department of Police Accountability, the District Attorney’s Internal Investigations Bureau, and the medical examiner.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Carrasco as the officer in a 2015 incident involving a an officer by the same name. Mission Local regrets the error.
Hmmmm. No sympathy for the SFPD and the dangers of their job at all.
“I feared for my life, when he was blindly swinging his 3.5″ knife behind his back, while I was wearing my body armor.”
Bullet proof vests protect against… Bullets.
It normally offers little protection against knives.
That is not true. I suggest you do some research on the effectiveness and what body armor SFPD uses. SFPD uses a Vortex™ IIIA Gen 2 ballistic vest which offers stab resistance.
Right. The only option available was to shoot him in the back I guess.