By Eduardo Medina
San Francisco Chronicle
BODEGA BAY, Calif. — The Sonoma County sheriff’s office released body camera footage this week showing a deputy shooting a San Francisco man who officials say had stabbed a security guard and ran into pedestrians with a stolen truck on July 4 — all while high on LSD.
The 13-minute graphic video includes 911 audio, body camera footage and police narration, and tracks 32-year-old Betai Koffi — the man accused of a drug-induced rampage that injured eight people — as he traverses Bodega Bay.
In the final minutes of the video, captured by the body camera of deputy Jason Pasero, shots can be heard as Koffi drives a truck authorities said he had stolen toward the officers.
Pasero is the deputy who shot Koffi, according to officials. A bullet struck Koffi on the right side of his brain, paralyzing the left side of his body, according to his defense attorney Stephen Gallenson.
“Shots fired, shots fired!” Pasero yells in the video.
Another series of shots are heard and Pasero says, “Stop... she’s down.”
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=392712981375531
Pasero then walks around the vehicle as he calls for medical assistance. His body camera shows Koffi in the truck, the windshield pierced with bullets.
“He’s down dude. He’s still breathing,” Pasero says.
Pasero proceeds to take Koffi, bloodied all over, out of the vehicle.
“Multiple shots in the head, I think,” Pasero says.
Koffi is laid down on the street, his blood splattered across his clothes and on the road.
“Did he have a gun?” an officer is heard asking.
“No, he tried to ram us with the car dude,” Pasero responds.
In the 911 audio, the caller, who was friends with Koffi, according to officials in the video, was asked by a dispatcher if Koffi had threatened suicide.
“Has he threatened suicide? Yes.” the caller says.” “He said he thought he was already dead. And that nothing really mattered.”
As the officers handcuff Koffi in the video and treat his wounds, Koffi says, “Somebody kill me, please. Please kill me. Please kill me.”
Koffi allegedly took four doses of LSD while he was with friends at a rented house on the 500 block of Swan Drive in Bodega Bay, according to officials.
After taking the drugs at around 5 p.m., Koffi punched a woman in the chest, stabbed a man with a pencil, choked a different man and punched another man in the face, officials said.
Officials said Koffi drove a car into a garage, got the vehicle stuck and walked toward a nearby home on Swan Drive.
Security camera footage from that home shows Koffi walking toward the security guard. Officials said the security guard was stabbed in the chest by Koffi with a landscape light, but the video doesn’t capture this. The security guard suffered non-life threatening injuries, officials said.
Authorities said Koffi then stole the guards truck and hit two sets of pedestrians on Pelican Loop — the incidents were captured on a home surveillance camera.
In the video, a man and two women are seen getting struck by the vehicle allegedly stolen by Koffi.
All three people hit by the vehicle suffered non-life threatening injuries, according to officials.
Koffi faces multiple charges, including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and carjacking, according to court records. His bail was set at $2.35 million.
Gallenson said Koffi is still paralyzed on his left side, but he’s improving daily.
Gallenson said he was bothered by the video when he saw the officers “yank” Koffi out of the car and make “no effort to try to lay Koffi down on the ground in a more gentle manner.”
“It was like someone trying to throw, I don’t know, an animal in the back of a pickup truck,” Gallenson said.
Gallenson questioned whether it was necessary to shoot Koffi.
“From just looking at the video, it didn’t seem to me that the officers life was in danger,” Gallenson said.
Gallenson said he’d like to hear from the officer to see if he truly felt that Koffi posed a threat as he slowly drove toward the officers.
A plea hearing is set for August 14.
©2019 the San Francisco Chronicle