By Vivian Ho
San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — Family members of a woman fatally shot by San Francisco police are calling for an investigation into whether the plainclothes officers who shot her had properly identified themselves when they approached her car, a family attorney said Monday.
Police say the officers shot Alice Brown, 24, after she sped away from a gas station at Van Ness Avenue and Pine Street, crashing into vehicles and a building, turning around and driving down a one-way street in the wrong direction and posing a danger to other motorists.
But at a town hall meeting Monday, attorney DeWitt Lacy said he was looking into the possibility that Brown reacted erratically because she did not know the intentions of the two men — identified by Police Chief Greg Suhr as Sgt. Thomas Maguire and Officer Michael Tursi — who were chasing her.
“There is some suggestion that the officers had not properly identified themselves as officers and were plainclothes officers,” Lacy said, as Brown’s aunt, brother, cousin and family friends stood behind him.
Lacy said some eyewitnesses reported that they did not see identification on Maguire and Tursi and that they “didn’t know whether they were attackers or carjackers.”
Repeated Interruptions
Suhr attempted to tell the police version of last Tuesday’s events to the small but hostile crowd at the meeting, but he was repeatedly interrupted by calls for his resignation and chants accusing the police of corruption.
Suhr said that just after 7 p.m., Maguire and Tursi approached Brown, who was in a stolen Volkswagen Jetta Zipcar.
They identified themselves as police officers verbally while displaying their badge around their necks, Suhr said. Brown then reversed, hit a pole, did a three-point turn and took off westbound on Pine Street, honking and striking several cars along the way.
Maguire and Tursi pursued on foot while their partner pursued Brown in an unmarked police vehicle with sirens, Suhr said.
When Brown reached the red light at the end of the block, Tursi tried to open her door, but Brown reversed into a sidewalk, hit a building and began driving the wrong way down Pine, a one-way street, before crashing into more parked cars and motorists on the block, Suhr said.
Tursi fired twice at Brown, Suhr said. When she continued driving, ending up on a sidewalk, both officers fired at Brown, hitting her. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
After Suhr finished his account of the shooting, Tammi Abney, a witness, stood up and told him, “I was there, and that was not what went down.
“There were no cops in the station,” she said. “What you said was not true. It was not true. There was a shot that was fired when she first pulled onto Pine Street and was heading up to
Franklin, and there were four more shots fired as she was heading back down, and that was when her car hit the sidewalk.”
Michele Herzberg-Moran, another witness whose car was struck by Brown, tried to speak over the chants and shouts of the crowd.
“I believe I was one of the first two cars she hit, and I was terrified,” she said, fighting back tears.
“Do you think she deserved to die?” somebody shouted.
“I’m not saying that,” she said. “What I do know, the car was being used as a weapon, whether to the police or whether to the cars. It was scary. And luckily it doesn’t appear anybody was being hurt.”
The crowd grew too loud for her to speak, and she sat down, crying.
Family Seeks Answers
The family of Brown joined the meeting shortly after it began, her aunt wiping her eyes as attendees yelled at the police.
Brown’s brother had told The Chronicle that his sister was a sweet but troubled woman with a history of drug abuse. She had been arrested on a variety of larceny- and drug-related crimes since 2009, and had spent time in jail.
The day before she was killed, a judge ruled that she had abandoned her drug treatment program and issued two felony warrants for her arrest.
The family did not speak at the meeting, but stood by as their attorney made a brief statement.
Lacy said it’s still early in the investigation process, and though the family has retained his services, they have not determined whether to take legal action against police.
“We want answers just like many folks in the community expressed here at this town hall meeting, and the family deserves these answers,” he said. “This is someone whose life has been taken at the hands of the state, and we have to make sure that was done with just cause.”
Copyright 2015 the San Francisco Chronicle