On a quiet Friday afternoon almost two years ago, Alex Nieto climbed to the top of Bernal Hill in San Francisco to eat a burrito before heading to work, but he ended up being shot and killed by San Francisco police.
The details of what went down that March night in 2014 differ depending on who you talk to, but nevertheless, a group of jurors will be the ones to weigh the evidence and decide what happened. Nieto’s family sued the city for excessive use of force, and the case goes to trial March 1, 2016.
“This upcoming trial is very important because we usually do not get a trial,” said Benjamin Bac Sierra, a professor and Nieto’s friend who wrote a film about Nieto’s death. “Many times they [the cases] are thrown out and the police are found to be justified.”
Police brutality has been at the forefront of the national conversation recently. Between 2000 and 2014, San Francisco police were involved in 97 shootings — 33 that resulted in deaths. In each fatal case, SFPD and the city attorney found the officer used deadly force within policy, according to the San Francisco Examiner.
This has branded the SFPD with a reputation of impunity and distrust for police among many San Francisco citizens. Recently, the shooting death of Mario Woods generated further public outrage after widely-circulated videos showed police surrounding Woods. His autopsy revealed 20 gunshot wounds. The incident, among others, prompted calls for Police Chief Greg Suhr’s resignation.
In order for an investigation independent of the SFPD to happen, a civil lawsuit must be filed. In Nieto’s case, District Attorney George Gascón declined to press charges against the four involved officers, but the civil suit is pushing forward.
During a news conference, Gascón said the Nieto shooting “is clearly constitutional, and I’m not sure there is much that could have been done to prevent it.”
But a film, “Lowrider Lawyers: Putting A City on Trial,” shows a different side from the District Attorney’s report. It provides a glimpse of the evidence that will be presented in federal court.
The media hasn’t reported on many of the depositions filed in the lawsuit against the city, but the movie features many of them. It includes perspectives from a Taser expert, a dog owner and a person who stood 20 feet from the incident.
In the film, the depositions are brought to life through actors playing the roles of the witnesses and experts, using the actual testimonies. The attorneys and the judge, and are played by Bac Sierra and other community members, give fictionalized responses the evidence.
“If it weren’t so terrible to witness the parents whose grief cannot find resolution, it would be laughable to watch people scream ‘bad apples’ and refuse to see this as institutional racism,” said Peter Mencini, the director of the film.
The police’s version of events suggests Nieto was acting aggressively: He brandished a weapon at a dog being walked on the hill.
But in the deposition, the dog owner said Nieto stood on a bench to escape his dog, which was let off leash. The dog owner’s large Siberian Husky was pursuing Nieto for his burrito. The dog owner said Nieto pointed a weapon at his dog, but was able to tell that Nieto was holding a Taser, not a gun.
Nieto carried a Taser with him because he was employed as a security guard for Toro, a San Francisco bar and nightclub.
Police were dispatched after a hiker called 911 and said that somebody that appeared to be a gang member had a gun at the top of the hill. In the police’s version of events, the officers told Nieto to drop his weapon and raise his hands. Nieto, the police account says, “squared off in a defensive stance” and pointed a weapon at them. Police believed it was a gun because it was emitting a “red laser muzzle flash” that they claim was tracking them.
The expert from the Taser company testified that Tasers don’t create a muzzle flash, or reproduce any of the other characteristics of a firearm.
The eyewitness testimony also contradicts this version. Witness Antonio Theodore, who was on Bernal Hill at the time, testified that he never saw Alex Nieto’s hands leave his jacket pockets. He only heard one officer to the right of Nieto yell “Stop” and pause for about a second before shooting.
If a decision that differs from the police investigation is reached, the civil federal case hearing could make history for police violence cases in San Francisco, and, possibly, the nation.