Source: screenshot / CBS
A cop in San Francisco won’t be held accountable after he shot and killed an unarmed Black man on the steps of his home.
According to CBS, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins decided on Monday to dismiss the manslaughter charges against Kenneth Cha, the officer who shot Sean Moore after police were called to Moore’s home for a noise complaint. Moore would later die in prison from complications resulting from his injuries.
“We are moving to dismiss the case against Officer Kenneth Cha as we do not believe that we can sustain our burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Cha did not act in reasonable self-defense,” said Jenkins in a statement.
In 2017, San Fran police officers were called to Sean Moore’s home around 4 a.m. after responding to a call about a man banging on the walls of his home, which allegedly violated a noise-related restraining order.
During the incident, which was recorded by the Police body camera, Officers demanded that Moore come outside but Moore refused. According to Moore’s family, he was in the middle of a mental health crisis caused by bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Moore shouted at the officers to get off his stairs, but the officers continued to demand he exit the home.
When Moore complied, he was then pepper sprayed and beaten with a baton. Moore panicked and fought back, punching one of the officers and kicking Officer Cha down the flight of stairs. Cha then shot Moore twice, once in the leg and once in the stomach.
A year later, the charges were dropped after an appeals court found that officers lacked probable cause to arrest Moore.
In 2020, while serving time in prison for an unrelated charge, Moore died from complications resulting from his injuries.
A year later, former DA Chesa Boudin charged Officer Cha for his involvement in the shooting of Sean Moore. It was the first time a city DA had filed charges against a police officer with a crime related to a use-of-force death.
“We rely on officers to follow their training and to de-escalate situations; instead, in just eight minutes, Officer Cha elevated a nonviolent encounter to one that took Sean Moore’s life. Sean Moore was unarmed and at his own home when Officer Cha shot him twice,” said Boudin during the time she filed charges.
The city also voted to pay $3.25 million to Moore’s family to settle their federal excessive force lawsuit.
But new DA Brooke Jenkins says her office “can not ethically prosecute this case in good faith.”
As prosecutors, we have a sacred duty to try cases in good faith, to not abuse our power and ensure that the cases we bring forward are fair in order to maintain trust in the criminal justice system,” said Jenkins.
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