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The family and community of Sahleem Tindle, a 28-year-old father of two slain by BART police near the West Oakland BART Station, held a vigil on Feb. 13 to his honor his memory and to call for justice.
Tindle was killed on Jan. 3 after being shot three times in the back by officer Joseph Mateu. According to a wrongful claim filed by John L. Burris, the law office representing Tindle’s family, Mateu was writing a citation when he heard two gunshots near the West Oakland BART Station on 7th Street.
Burris said that Mateu drew his gun when he saw two young men “grappling” on the ground. The claim stated that Mateu’s body camera footage (shown below) showed that “neither Mr. Tindle nor the other man involved in the wrestling held any object in their hands from the time Officer Mateu arrived at the scene to the time Officer Mateu fired his weapon three times killing Mr. Tindle.”
According to Burris, the man Tindle was wrestling with was shot in the leg by Tindle, but had disarmed Tindle prior to Mateu’s arrival. Mateu told the two men to separate, shouting “Show me your hands.” And as Tindle was in the process of putting his hands in the air, Mateu fired his gun. Enlarged photos of Tindle’s bloody back were demonstrated to the crowd.
Shortly after his death, various news media began publishing police reports that Tindle was fatally shot by a BART police officer after refusing to drop a gun he was holding.
Many members of Tindle’s family used the vigil to plead for justice. Tindle’s mother, Yolanda Banks Reed called on the major media outlets to report the full truth, saying that they had used the police’s report of the incident without considering how the family and community would be impacted.
“What about his children?” asked Reed, urging the media to consider her grandchildren and their needs, now that they were without a father.
The family is calling for Mateu to be charged with murder.