An Outer Sunset man who pointed a gun at an overhead police drone earlier this month and was subsequently wounded during a police shooting may have actually shot himself, according to a presentation by the San Francisco Police Department on Tuesday afternoon.
Video of the shooting, released today as part of a virtual town hall on the March 8 police shooting of 46-year-old Dmitri Hochstatter, shows Hochstatter leaning against his backyard fence and waving a gun idly around while staring at a police drone hovering over the neighbor’s backyard.
He appears drunk, and his wife told officers he had been drinking. Hochstatter ambles along the fence, alternatively aiming his gun at the drone and lowering it. Officers, lying on a neighbor’s porch, monitor the situation.
“Do you have eyes on him?” one asks. “Only his right hand,” replies Officer Donald Sakiyama, as Hochstatter grips the wooden boards and dangles his gun. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
Nine seconds later, a gunshot rings out, and a small piece of the wooden fence in front of Hochstatter is blown off. It’s unclear who fired the first shot; Hochstatter’s gun was aimed towards the fence at the time, and it explodes in his face.
A second later, Sakiyama fires four shots.
Hochstatter then cowers and stumbles backwards with his gun raised. As he walks back beneath the tree cover, officers begin to shout, “Drop the gun!”
Officers stationed at the neighbor’s house jump over the wooden privacy fence to get to Hochstatter, who now lays on the blood and moss covered ground on his stomach.
“I’m going to die,” he says between moans. “You’re not going to die,” an officer responds as they provide aid.
Commander Mark Im said officers on-scene thought the man had wounded himself. “Immediately following the officer-involved shooting, an officer broadcast on the radio, ‘He just shot towards the air. Looks like he just shot himself in the arm.’”
Investigators have yet to recover any shell casings from Hochstatter’s gun, however. Police were also unable to swab Hochstatter’s hands for residue that would identify whether or not he had fired the gun, Chief Bill Scott said, because of the “emergency medical situation” that required him to be transported to the hospital.
Several officers did report that Hochstattert had fired the first shot, Scott said.
Hochstatter was not given verbal warning before being fired on, but was enough of a public safety risk that officers followed department policy when firing, Scott said. SFPD’s use-of-force policy does not require a suspect to shoot before officers can use force, if those officers believe that they or anyone else present is “in immediate danger of death or serious bodily injury.”
The initial 911 report that brought SFPD to the scene described the 46-year-old as pacing in his Outer Sunset backyard, cursing and waving a gun at neighbors’ children.
Responding officers had stationed themselves at two adjacent properties. In body-camera footage shown by SFPD, officers in one house are heard noting that Hochstatter was looking over his fence, and that it was hard to see over all the trees. They did not think he was aware of their presence.
“My idea is to try to talk to him from here, to see if he will drop the gun and surrender,” says someone behind Officer Sakiyama. Three other officers, including one identified by police as a specialist, later joined Sakiyama on the deck with their firearms pointed.
Officers planned to create a perimeter, isolate Hochstatter, and evacuate neighbors from the area, audio captured on their body cameras shows. Two drones were flown overhead to monitor the situation.
The department also wanted a PA system brought in to communicate with Hochstatter, Scott said. But before it arrived, Sakiyama had already fired at Hochstatter.
Hochstatter was struck once. He was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Hochstatter had been depressed and drinking alone, his wife told officers. He had no prior offenses, a responder said on a Department of Emergency Management call for service. Neighbors told police they’d never had issues with him before.
A full investigation of the incident is still ongoing.
The shooting was an isolated incident that is no longer a public safety concern, said Taraval station commanding officer Brien Hoo. A community meeting will be held on March 20.
This is an ongoing investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact the SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD. You may remain anonymous.
Drinking and guns don’t mix.
You know he’s lucky to be alive, and we should all credit the SFPD for theirprofessionalism and restraint in this one instance. They did their job.
I’m outraged now that SFPD would put this out publicly knowing that we can SEE the front of the pistol to the RIGHT of the section of fence that goes flying away. Is it incompetence or deliberate misleading? Like nobody would take a second look?
why is the less lethal laying on the table? Sling it so it’s secure, you should be able to transition. Practice, practice, practice, training, training, training.
“Police were also unable to swab Hochstatter’s hands for residue that would identify whether or not he had fired the gun, Chief Bill Scott said, because of the “emergency medical situation” that required him to be transported to the hospital.”
There is absolutely no reason why this would have prevented swabbing his hands. Sounds like they dropped the ball on this and it’s a lame after the fact excuse.
Or they knew he didn’t fire and are lying by omission in the whole “controversy” here.
Officer Sakiyama seemingly attempted to shoot the gun out of Hochstatter’s hand, but missed low. Then fired four more rounds, one of which hit Hochstatter’s arm. Hochstatter never fired, nor did he have his finger on the trigger.
You can see the ejected casing from Sakiyama’s first shot flying towards the rear officer, and then you can hear it hitting the ground. Watch minute 43:55 at .25x speed.
Scott knows how many shots Sakiyama fired. SFPD has seen the ejected mystery shot casing the same as I have. They all know Hochstatter never fired.
So they friggin lied and invented the confusion for their own benefit.
It’s SFPD manipulating the press and the public in the interest of furthering propaganda. This is the media’s second round getting burned on this same incident.
It is a good microcosm for how propaganda works though. Gotta be careful out there.
https://youtu.be/V1pLwSoC9hA?feature=shared
SFPD admits at minute 11:58 that five .223 rifle casings were recovered on the deck. There are five audible shots. You don’t need to be Isaac Newton to figure the math here.
Good questions by caller and SFGH ICU worker Javier Fernandez. He knew SFPD wasn’t coming clean and called in twice to drill down on Chief Scott. That is what I call looking out for your patient. 👏
This situation must have been so scary for the young children playing innocently in their backyard..SFPD did the right thing in protecting these kids, their parents and the surrounding neighbors.
Total BS from SFPD officials, he did not fire his pistol creating the hole in the fence. He was shot with a rifle and the sound matches that. There is no controversy on this, he did not fire and the police did fire on him. You can see this. Now the question becomes why they chose that exact moment to do so, because moments before that he lowered his handgun and appeared to be second guessing his position. That would have been an ok moment to issue orders with a loudspeaker, rather than after having shot him with rifle rounds.
Once again it begs the question. Why would anyone want to be a cop in San Francisco or anywhere else for that matter? You can become a plumber or electrician, make more money, and everyone cares more for the safety of the criminal ( or in this case the drunken dangerous/suicidal idiot ) than you. Good luck idiots