FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 12, 2023
MEDIA CONTACT: PubDef-MediaRelations@sfgov.org | Valerie Ibarra, PIO (628)249-7946
**PRESS STATEMENT**
San Francisco Public Defender’s Office Condemns SFPD Shooting of Richard Everett in Tenderloin District
SAN FRANCISCO – On Aug. 28, members of the San Francisco Police Department shot at Richard Everett, 54, after being dispatched to the scene regarding a man with a knife. Everett was taken to San Francisco General Hospital after suffering multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and other areas of his body. He remains in the hospital, and is being held under the Sheriff’s custody, as he faces several charges related to his arrest. Deputy Public Defender Nuha Abusamra has been provisionally appointed to represent Everett, and will arraign him in his absence on Wednesday, Sept. 13, at 850 Bryant in Department 10 at 9 a.m. After meeting with her client and reviewing the SFPD town hall footage, Abusamra issues the following statement:
“I was deeply disturbed to learn that SFPD had shot my client, Mr. Everett. Known by his friends as ‘Louisiana,’ Mr. Everett is a longtime resident of the Tenderloin, and a Black man, who has survived a lifetime of trauma that has only increased from this shooting. He remains in the hospital due to this act of police brutality and may never be able to use his right hand again.
The footage of the police shooting Mr. Everett is gruesome. When the police closed off the 300 block of Jones Street and surrounded Mr. Everett, they were not in danger. Police spent roughly 15 minutes giving him conflicting commands, both asking him to drop the knife and then telling him he could keep it. When Mr. Everett tried to slowly walk away while holding a milk crate in one hand and his duffel bag in the other, police opened fire with both less-lethal and lethal rounds in quick succession. That is not de-escalation. That is an attempt to execute him. Miraculously, Mr. Everett escaped with his life, but he is now the one who is facing criminal charges. We intend to fight all the counts as charged.”
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