Jamaica Hampton, the 24-year-old man who police shot multiple times in December at the intersection of Mission and 23rd streets, had his left leg amputated on Thursday — a medical necessity after officers shot him at least once in the leg during that incident, according to Hampton and his friend Eve Greenberg.
Greenberg, who has been in regular contact with Hampton since the Dec. 7 shooting, said that one officer shot Hampton at least once in the left leg as Hampton ran in the direction of the officer. The officer’s other shot may have hit Hampton elsewhere. Hampton granted her permission to share these details.
Once on the ground — and seemingly posing no further threat — another officer shot Hampton in the left arm, according to Greenberg.
On Dec. 7, around 8:30 a.m., police stopped Hampton in front of a corner store at 23rd and Mission streets. Police allege Hampton immediately moved to attack Officer Sterling Hayes as he opened the door of the patrol car, and then assaulted another officer, Christopher Flores, with an 8-½ inch Grey Goose vodka bottle, injuring Flores.
A chase around 23rd Street ensued. As Hampton ran in the direction of Hayes, the officer fired multiple times and struck Hampton, video of the incident shows.
Hampton fell on the ground, but as he was crawling in the direction of Flores, Flores fired one shot, according to video footage of the incident. That shot apparently struck Hampton on the arm.
According to Hayes’s body camera, viewed by the public at a town hall meeting, Hayes told Flores, a rookie, to “Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!” after Flores shot Hampton while he was on the ground.
Police later confirmed that Flores was undergoing his first-year field training at the time of the shooting, and Hayes was his training officer.
Greenberg said she made her weekly visit to Hampton on Monday. That’s when she learned Hampton would be having his left leg amputated. On Friday, Hampton confirmed to her that doctors amputated his left leg after a five-hour surgery on Thursday.
Greenberg met Hampton six months before the shooting when he was working security at the Farmer’s Market in Oakland.
“He’s doing good and his spirits are up — but it’s a long road to recovery,” Greenberg told Mission Local on Friday, noting she has put up a GoFundMe for his recovery. “He just wants to get out of the hospital. He told me ‘I just want to get out of this bed.’”
She said Hampton wants to get back to his life of helping foster youth. “But now things may be looking a little different because healing from surgery is his number-one priority,” she said.
Hampton struggled with homelessness through much of childhood, sometimes living in drug houses and becoming a foster child at the age of 12, Hampton said in a recent video by CityTeam, an organization that offers social and addiction recovery services. He was living and working at the CityTeam building on 8th and Washington in Oakland around the time of the shooting, Greenberg told Mission Local in December.
But Hampton is also facing criminal charges. Following the incident, the San Francisco District Attorney charged Hampton with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault on a police officer, threat to an executive officer, and vandalism.
San Francisco Police Department officials said, on Dec. 7, officers had been searching for a suspect that morning who had burglarized a house on 23rd and Capp streets and who was breaking into cars near the house — but none of the charges filed against Hampton relate to either incident.
Hampton’s vandalism charge relates to an unspecified incident on Mission Street between 22nd and 23rd, according to police.
Hampton remains at San Francisco General Hospital.
What a spin mastered story written in an attempt that we feel sorry for this criminal who hit a police officer over the head with a bottle. Typical media bias, baloney. Jmho !!
Exactly !
Mr. Mark and Eskenazi,
I take issue with one of your sentences written here inserting the line ” and seemingly posing no further threat- another officer shot Hampton in the left arm.”
I would like to divert your attention to another officer involved shooting last year in Georgia on July 1st 2019, the link to the story should be embedded below, the story was published on July 2nd I believe. It was a very similar issue with Mr. Hampton instead the man was holding a butcher knife and challenging the police. They shot him and the man went down but the man got up and ran towards the officer and tried to take the officer hostage attempting to take the officer’s gun after being mortally injured. It’s important as you analyze these events to not rush to judgment. If someone is shot does not mean that person does not pose a threat. Most people survive being shot and some people when their adrenaline is rushing won’t even feel being shot. If after attacking an officer and surviving being shot someone continues to get up and refuses to comply with verbal commands than shooting someone in a limb is a justifiable option.
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/mynews/athens/moment-by-moment-bodycams-show-deadly-officer-involved-shooting-from-two-angles/85-9a076f1e-6697-461d-a6f5-6fca0007a2d7
We are praying for you Jamaica and we love you very much things will get better with Gods help. Love you maka
No update on the officer whose face Hampton beat with a Grey Goose bottle?
Police “allege.” Jesus, please report is seen in the video and what happened. Don’t play this guy as the victim. It really make you and your site look really stupid.
Sir or madam —
As a previous commenter noted, this is journalistic practice in cases where someone has not been convicted of a crime.
Thanks for the advice.
JE
Joe, to be consistent you would also need to write that the police allegedly shot Hampton multiple times. That you just state as a fact without qualification.
This is a lesson about stupidity. I think this a huge lesson to be learned here which is never to do actions that can cost you everything. I feel that if he had never done what he did that day, he would have never ended up in the situation he is now, he harmed a cop and broke into a home that was not his. In life there are consequences for everything we do good or bad. At 24 years old, he should be wise, because at that age you are a man and not a boy. Blaming the officers is far too common, sometimes we have to wonder what happened before the cops were even called…
How do you ***know*** he broke into the house? Just because he happened to be in the area at the time? Could he have another reason for trying to evade the police? Regardless of whether he broke into a private residence or not, your ignorance and hate is astounding.
Watch the video, this guy wasn’t innocent at all he cut up a cops face with a glass bottle, he harmed another human being, how is he innocent at all, please think a bit clearly here, no matter what the police were called because he broke the law and violated another persons rights. Unless you were ever a victim of a crime then you would understand how no one can tolerate this kind of behavior, he was shot because he clearly was not going to comply, suppose he hurt those kids in that near by elementary school. Come on, think. Why do people like yourself make excuses for people of this nature who are not going to change and use the past as an excuse to harm themselves or others.
Is it possible that someone looking for street cred’ would give an arm and a leg to make publicity cold cocking a copper? Taken in that context, I’d say Hampton got off easy.
It is sad to see this young man come to this extreme. He seemed to have a promising future. Has it been determined if Jamaica was back to using? Sure sounds like it.
Well, he still could use his experience to help wayward youth – provided he turns his life around and establishes that as a fact. Give him 10 yrs clean and helpful, and that ‘street cred’ could really prove valuable.
Eve Greenberg and others, please should not post things concerning this situation. I feel these medical posts are hurting not helping.
Thank you
This man should be nowhere near foster kids. He belongs in prison pumping out license plates. Thank you Officers for taking this dangerous man off the streets, away from peaceful Mission residents he could have just as easily assaulted.
Marcos he is not even a man, real men are not violent criminals, he is boy who simply could not wear his big boy pants and find peaceful solutions to his issues.
If you’ve only seen the body cam footage, you might agree with the biases against SFPD here. Watch the street footage.
We all want to see officers held accountable for their use of excessive force, but I wouldn’t look at this case to build an argument.
Good advice Jim Jones. We are all blessed by your input
All of us did and it shows him as the aggressor. Please don’t act like Trump.
We have police officers who put themselves in harm’s way every day. It’s not an easy job and I’m happy to pay someone else to do it. They do make mistakes, just like the rest of us, and being in a situation such as the one that Hampton provoked might be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. We should take them to task and ensure that they do not abuse their power.
That being said, from most accounts, it’s fairly clear that Hampton bears most of the responsibility for the situation that he is in, and we should not lose sight of that. Life is not fair, and it sounds like he came from tough circumstances, but so did many of us, and most of us do not choose to become threats to public safety.
I agree with what you wrote here, its quiet clear he was all over the place that day and he became a public threat, and he just would not comply, the cops had to make a judgement call in which they did not want to make, he clearly was out of line that day. I feel this his upbringing and struggles are no excuse in inflicting trauma on others. That in itself is not fair and nor is it right, my upbringing was similar to Hamptons, but I never inflicted my traumas on others, my father taught me behavior like this is wrong and that it would make me a bully. My parents taught me, treat others in the way you would like to be treated, that also depends on how one treats themselves, if they lack self respect, best believe they do not have respect anyone else.
Nobody deserves to lose a leg. But at the same time, it’s upsetting seeing Mission Local make a victim out of him. Police officers have a right to come home. If one decides to attack an officer, be willing to deal with the consequences. Please don’t victimize this dude.
Totally agree.
I believe you mean ‘make a victim of,’ but I get what you’re trying to say.
What you and others who have critiqued ML’s coverage actually seem to be saying is ‘please don’t *humanize* this dude.’ It’s an important distinction.
“Police allege Hampton immediately moved to attack Officer Sterling Hayes as he opened the door of the patrol car, and then assaulted another officer, Christopher Flores, with an 8-½ inch Grey Goose vodka bottle, injuring Flores.”
Do they even have to allege this? The videos are pretty clear that Hampton attacked the cops immediately and without any provocation. What was he on that early in the morning?
I’m sorry about the leg, dude, but you can’t hope to have a career helping foster youth if you are using or unstable or both.
Uh…. Duh… Yeah – allege.
Ostensibly we live within a system where one is presumed innocent until … well … you know the rest.
And the Miranda warning.
These are the some of the very few things that slightly separate us from our chimpanzee brethren.
Don’t be a chimp.
They can be unusually cruel, merciless and prone to warring/killing almost to the degree of humans.
Carlos, you should watch the videos and then let me know if you think Hampton allegedly attacked the cops or something else happened. I’m not his official judge or jury. That will happen soon. But what happened is clearly caught on tape, even if it goes against the social justice narrative.
We all know he clearly did attack the officers. But, regardless of what they actually think about it, everyone uses “allegedly” until the case is closed and a trial (or plea bargain) has occurred in order to avoid liability for misrepresenting the eventual, official *legal* interpretation of what took place. This is common practice in media especially, because leading with “XYZ murders ABC!” can get you into quite a bit of lawsuit trouble if a defendant is acquitted and comes at the publication for slander/defamation.
Considering that the cops involved are under criminal investigation, Ie: Chesa Boudin
Then the headline can also read “cops allegedly shot Hampton in the leg”
Am I right ? or does it only apply to “victims” of “police violence”?