The San Francisco Police Department has released the names of the two officers involved in the shooting death of Luis Gongora on April 7 to KQED.
Both officers, Sgt. Nate Steger and officer Michael Mellone, have more than a decade of law enforcement experience.
The San Francisco Police Department has issued statements indicating that Gongora brandished a knife at the officers, and that some witnesses confirmed this. But eight witnesses have told various media organizations that Gongora never threatened the officers with his knife.
Steger has been an SFPD officer for 17 years, KQED reported, having started his career in Washington, D.C. He later became an internal affairs investigator, a state-certified police instructor, as well as a member of the law enforcement support and peer leadership organization Blue Courage.
Mellone transferred to San Francisco four years ago, and was the first to administer the anti-overdose treatment Naloxone to a man in the Mission in 2015.
In 2011, a detective by the same name was named in an excessive force lawsuit brought against Antioch county, KQED reports, though it’s unclear whether Mellone is indeed the former Antioch detective. The suit alleged that officers violently tackled, handcuffed and used a Taser on two individuals in their home in Pittsburg.
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