Police body cameras reveal chaotic barbershop gunfight

San Francisco police screened body camera footage Thursday evening of a shootout that killed a suspect and injured five other people, including an officer, in an Outer Mission barbershop last week.

The body-worn camera footage was shown during a tense town hall meeting held at Balboa High School, where there was conflict even between members of the family of the man killed, identified as Jehad Eid, 21.

Police did not disclose today who shot the four other people who were injured and it is unclear from the chaotic and graphic body camera video. One of the people shot suffered life-threatening injuries, but police said that all victims had been released from the hospital by this evening.

Police Capt. Valerie Matthews, who heads the major crimes division of the department, said the shooting happened after police were called to the 200 block of Amazon Avenue at 4:28 p.m. on March 21. Family members had reported that Eid was threatening them, flashed a gun, and was trying to break into their garage. When police arrived, the family said he had gone to Amazon Barbershop nearby at 949 Geneva Ave., according to Matthews.

When police arrived there, Eid stood up and shot at the officers. Two officers returned fire. Eid shot nine rounds from a 40-caliber handgun. The two officers fired 26, hitting Eid 18 times, according to Matthews.

The videos were also released online. They include body-worn camera video from one of two officers who opened fire inside the barbershop as well as body-worn camera video from an officer standing outside and dash-cam video from a patrol vehicle outside.

In the first video, the officer enters the barbershop along with a plainclothes officer, where two people are seated on a long couch. Both officers then draw their guns and begin shooting at the back corner. The officers drop to the ground and move behind a barber chair.

The officer reloads his gun. There is no audio in the video until the shooting is over. When the audio turns on, one person can be heard yelling, “I got kids here! I got kids here!” The suspect in the corner is crumpled to the floor. The uniformed officer, who was shot in the leg, eventually crawls out of the shop onto the sidewalk.

The other officer was not wearing a body camera because she was in plain clothes, Matthews said.

The second video shows officers outside when the shooting happens. They are handcuffing an unidentified man and duck behind a car when they hear gunshots. The third video shows the same scene from a different angle.

One of the shop’s barbers who spoke at the meeting identified himself as Chad and said he was the person being handcuffed in the video. He criticized the police response and said he was arrested because he was mistaken for the suspect.

Once the shooting broke out, he said police pushed him into the line of fire while they ducked for cover. Video shows him trying to kneel behind a car while still cuffed as officers take cover with their guns drawn.

Chad said:

“It should’ve been treated like a hostage situation. The guy was in there calm.”

He said he knew Eid, and called him a “really good kid.”

He “never meant nobody no danger,” Chad said.

At least two other people who said they were wounded in the shooting were at the meeting, and Chad said that they were unable to work now because of their injuries. One said that he didn’t know how he was shot, whether it was by Eid or by the police. Chad said that an officer’s bullet nearly hit the head of a man in the shop.

Eid’s family was split in their reaction to the shootout. A representative of the family who did not identify himself read a statement apologizing to the police and saying that they regretted that the shooting may give ammunition to people seeking greater gun control.

The family said they are:

“… in deep mourning for our beloved Jehad and regret there was nothing we could do to prevent this incident.”

But another man who identified himself as Eid’s uncle yelled back after the statement, saying that the person did not speak for the whole family. He later spoke himself, saying that he had no ill will toward the police but he was not satisfied with the information given and wanted more answers.

The uncle said:

“He was a very sweet kid. He did not have to die.”

Bay City News

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