SAN FRANCISCO
Police fatally shoot man in friend's attic
Officers thought glasses case was gun and opened fire
- Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, June 8, 2006

Two San Francisco police officers who shot and killed an unarmed man in the darkened attic of an apartment mistook him for a trespasser with a gun, police officials said Wednesday.

Asa B. Sullivan, 25, had his arms outstretched and was holding a "cylindrical object" when the officers confronted him Tuesday night in the apartment near Lake Merced, prompting them to open fire, said Police Chief Heather Fong. The object turned out to be an eyeglasses case.

Police refused to release the officers' names, saying only that one was a male officer with four years' experience on the force and the other was a female officer with the department for three years.

A department spokesman initially told reporters that Sullivan had fired at the officers through the attic floor, a version of events that police did not officially correct for more than 16 hours. Fong said the earlier story was based on a preliminary account.

Fired through the attic floor. Remember that.

The officers followed and tried to talk Sullivan into giving up, even enlisting his companion in the effort, Fong said. Sullivan replied that he didn't want to go back to jail, the chief said.

At that point, the officers had the option of calling in a canine unit or SWAT team to flush out Sullivan, or they could have tried to wait him out, authorities said. Instead, they ventured into the attic.

Hard to shoot through the floor at folks who are on the same floor you are.

The shooting occurred, Fong said, when Sullivan raised his hands and held the eyeglasses case as if it were a weapon.

"He assumed a shooting position,'' Fong said. "He held a cylindrical object and was pointing it right at the female officer.''

Yes, I'm quite sure the perp, in a 2 1/2 foot high attic, assumed a shooting position with his eyeglass case. 

The male officer, believing his partner was in danger, fired first, his round grazing the female officer's head, Fong said. "She believed she was being fired at,'' and she too opened fire on Sullivan, the chief said.

HE CAPPED HIS PARTNER! 

''They believed this individual was pointing a firearm at them,'' Fong said. "They took action they felt was appropriate at the time.''

SHE KILLED A GUY BECAUSE HE PARTNER SHOT HER! 

The chief conceded that police had given a preliminary account of the shooting to reporters that turned out to have several errors.

Police originally said that Sullivan was armed and had fired through the ceiling, narrowly missing one officer, and that two other officers then opened fire into the ceiling.

THE POLICE DEPARTMENT LIED REFLEXIVELY!

Why am I not surprised?