A homeless man detained by police in a July 11th incident has been acquitted of all charges against him, as the court case raised questions about the SFPD's handling of the pursuit and forceful arrest of the suspect.
Foot pursuit of a "lunatic" in the middle of the street on Fell at Baker. Still running at Oak and Broderick.
— Scanner Says… (@ScannerSays) July 11, 2014
(photo: Nuala Sawyer / Hoodline)
"He was running wildly in traffic," Officer Elizabeth Prillinger told us on the scene. "We noticed it obviously, and our intent was to detain him."
Prillinger told us that the incident began at Baker and Fell. After verbally requesting that the man get out of the street, police pursued him as he ran eastward through traffic for quite a few blocks of Oak Street. "It took a good amount of force to detain him," she said. "The officer in the process of trying to detain him got hurt. He was fighting him and actively resisting."
(photo: Nuala Sawyer / Hoodline)
The suspect, who was later identified as 22-year-old Joshua Boling, faced two counts of assault on an officer, one count of brandishing a knife on an officer and five counts of resisting arrest, according to the Examiner. Last week, he was acquitted of all charges after police failed to come up with a legal explanation for why they pursued or detained him in the first place.
According to Public Defender’s Office spokesperson Tamara Barak Aparton, Boling was hanging out in the Panhandle on the day of the incident. When he and his companion were approached by police, he took off toward Fell Street.
Once pursued, he took on a "fighting stance", though whether or not he had a weapon is under debate. Aparton said that one of the officers, believing Boling had pulled out a pocket knife, struck Boling in the knee with a baton, with Boling then fleeing through the DMV parking lot and onto Oak Street. Once apprehended on Oak at Divisadero (where we arrived on the scene), Boling was forcibly detained using a chokehold. He was also punched in the face six times by an officer and kicked in the shoulder, according to testimony, sustaining severe facial bruising.
As the Examiner notes, "During the course of the trial, none of the officers who testified could give a legal reason why Boling was stopped or pursued." According to the Public Defender's Office, police must have reasonable suspicion of a crime to detain them, and Boling's lawyer noted that “walking away while homeless is not a crime."
Boling was released on October 19th, but questions about the SFPD's enforcement methods remain unresolved.
