San Francisco police commission hears public outcry after officer-involved shooting of Luis Gongora

Public comment at the San Francisco Police Commission meeting on April 7 centered on last week’s officer-involved shooting of Luis (Jose Luis) Gongora and broader demands for transparency and changes to use-of-force practices.

Dozens of residents and advocates addressed the commission during the two-minute public-comment period, urging release of all available evidence and criticising the department’s handling of prior disclosures. One speaker urged the commission to stop treating transparency as a slogan, saying the discovery of additional allegedly racist text messages months earlier should have been disclosed to the public and had undermined trust.

At Item 4 the chief of police provided a preliminary operational account of the April 7 incident. According to his reading of officer interviews and available video, Department of Public Health outreach workers encountered Mr. Gongora and described him as appearing “in an altered state” and in possession of a large knife. The outreach workers requested police assistance; the first two SFPD officers to arrive included a sergeant and a 13‑year veteran officer who the chief said was CIT‑trained; a third, Spanish‑speaking, CIT‑trained officer arrived as they contacted Mr. Gongora.

Officers, the chief said, found Mr. Gongora seated on the sidewalk holding a knife with the blade pointed upward. The chief said the officers ordered him to drop the knife “multiple times,” and that the commands were given in English and Spanish and are audible in the surveillance footage. Officers deployed four beanbag rounds in an attempt to disarm him, and then fired lethal rounds. The chief reported that preliminary medical‑examiner information indicated seven rounds were fired and six struck Mr. Gongora; he said Mr. Gongora did not survive his injuries.

The chief emphasized that three separate investigations are underway — the department’s administrative inquiry, an independent Office of the District Attorney review and an OCC investigation at the request of the mayor — and said the statements he provided to the public came from interviews and video collected during early investigative work. He said his office’s practice is to update the public within 10 days of an officer‑involved shooting, while acknowledging there are conflicting witness accounts in the media.

Commissioners questioned the chief about tactics used at the scene, asking whether time‑and‑distance measures or less‑lethal tools such as batons could have been employed and how long Mr. Gongora was observed before officers engaged. The chief said the recorded portion of the encounter unfolded in under 30 seconds and reiterated that at least one officer present was CIT‑trained and that some de‑escalation training remains being rolled out across the force.

Community members at the meeting urged a broader reexamination of the department’s training and oversight systems. Several public commenters called for more independent review of the shooting, release of all videos and witness statements, and, in some cases, criminal charges. The commission provided the homicide division’s tip line number to anyone with additional evidence or video.

The commission did not take action on policy changes during the meeting; instead, commissioners pressed the chief and OCC leadership for follow‑up reports and additional details about training completion, evidence submissions and whether retired detectives can be rehired to help with unsolved homicides. The commission also heard proposals to accelerate training and to examine whether smaller interim policy changes (for example, an edged‑weapon policy) could be adopted sooner while a broader reengineering of use‑of‑force is developed.