At approximately 11:10 a.m. on Sept. 4, three people called 911 to report a man walking down the middle of Highway 101 in San Francisco.
“He’s limping … he looks like he’s running from something,” said one.
“He’s carrying scissors,” said another.
Minutes later, 40-year-old Juan Antonio Serrato lay near death, shot in the chest at close range by San Francisco police officer Michael Scott.
Scott fired after Serrato turned and hobbled towards another police officer, making stabbing-like motions in the air with the scissors. Serrato’s injuries were critical, but police officials said last week that he is expected to survive.
The law gives great leeway for police officers to use lethal force — especially in California, said Brian Cox, a San Francisco public defender. Getting an officer-misconduct trial in front of a jury in San Francisco is “almost impossible,” said Cox. But that doesn’t mean the officers and the responding sheriff’s deputy didn’t have other options.
An expert police source, who wished to remain anonymous, said that, in the incident that occurred on Sept. 4, a less-lethal weapon would have been a far better initial choice than shooting Serrato in the chest.
Since 2015, according to the San Francisco police department’s use-of-force policy, officers have been required to carry both pepper spray and a 20-millimeter “bean-bag gun,” which fires rubber bullets meant to temporarily incapacitate a subject. The SFPD does not use Tasers.
Not only could less-lethal tools have minimized the harm to Serrato, said the police source, they also could have lowered the risk of someone else being injured. If Scott had missed his target, he could have potentially hit a commuter on U.S. Highway 101.
“Was he overly threatening? No,” said the police source, after reviewing body camera footage of the incident. Serrato was clearly “hobbling” and “not traveling very fast” towards the officers, the source said. Not to mention, he added, Serrato “seemed out of it.”
Cox, who leads police accountability work for the San Francisco public defender’s office, said it’s clear Serrato was in both physical and mental distress.
Cox believes the SFPD officers violated departmental policy and did not follow their training in shooting Serrato. But, he adds, it’s unlikely they will be penalized for it.
“Not only is there a duty to de-escalate,” said Cox, “But you have to take into account who the person is.”
The officers’ first instinct, said Cox, should have been to contact a mental health team. “What I saw in the video is an officer approach aggressively; there was no chance for time and distance.”
What’s more, said Cox, Officer Scott could have easily hit a white truck passing directly behind Serrato when he was shot in the chest.
Serrato’s was the third police shooting in San Francisco this year, and the first in which the victim did not fire or brandish a gun at officers.
According to San Francisco Police Department officials, the two responding officers and one sheriff’s deputy who arrived at the scene did not hear the 911 calls made to the California Highway Patrol just minutes earlier. As a result, they were unaware that Serrato was holding scissors.
In a matter of 13 seconds after they arrived on the scene, Serrato was shot. As Serrato lay on the ground, body-camera footage shows all three officers with their firearms drawn.
In 2016, the year after the SFPD began requiring officers to carry less-lethal weapons, police shot Luis Gongora Pat, a 45-year-old homeless man, seven times after they said he lunged toward them with a knife, though witnesses contradicted their claims and surveillance video was inconclusive.
The department then added a requirement that officers carry longer, three-foot batons when responding to the city’s “homeless, person-in-crisis and non-firearm” calls. This was aimed at creating more “time and distance” between officers and the subject, a strategy to avoid using lethal force. But there’s no requirement to use these tools instead of a gun.
Though SFPD officers do not carry Tasers, sheriff’s deputies do. The deputy at the scene of the Serrato shooting had a Taser, but in body-worn camera footage shared at last week’s town hall meeting, he did not reach for it or announce any intention to use it. Instead, he immediately pulled out a firearm.
‘Not a consensual encounter’
Carl Tennenbaum, a 32-year former San Francisco police officer, is often critical of police use of force. But he did not find fault in Serrato’s shooting. In a chaotic and fast-moving situation, he said, officers “don’t have the luxury of going to the toolbox.”
“In an ideal world,” said Tennenbaum, “the officer could jump out of the way and grab a baton, knocking the scissors out of his hand. But is that realistic?” The deputy’s Taser may not have been accurate, he added.
Another former cop, retired captain Al Casciato, said it’s a matter of having not just the proper tools, but the appropriate training.
A police officer “is only as good as the tools … they have,” said Casciato. “The bigger question is, are they being provided, and are they being trained on how to use them?”
The SFPD did not answer questions about whether the responding officers had access to less-lethal weapons that day.
When responding to people who are experiencing a mental-health crisis or under the influence of drugs or alcohol, San Francisco officers, “if feasible,” must “utilize strategic communication, crisis intervention, and de-escalation strategies and techniques” before resorting to force, according to SFPD regulations.
Before using lethal force, they are required to create time and distance “if feasible.”
In the seconds before Serrato was shot as he approached the unidentified officer with scissors, the officer backed away from him, close to oncoming traffic. Neither officer warned Serrato before drawing and firing his weapon.
Though it is unclear whether Serrato — who had bandages wrapped around his wrists and had been wandering across the highway — was experiencing a mental health crisis or substance abuse disorder, his behavior was erratic.
While receiving critical medical aid after he was shot, Serrato repeatedly attempted to refuse help, shouting, “I’m fine without you!”
“If someone is on the side of a highway limping with white bandages on his wrists that should be a clear sign this is not a traditional, consensual encounter,” Cox said after reviewing body-camera footage.
The SFPD did not answer questions about whether Serrato had been evaluated by a mental-health professional.
From 2000 to 2022, Mission Local found, roughly 32 percent of the 65 people killed by San Francisco police had a history of mental illness.
The SFPD has struggled for years to train all of its officers in crisis intervention training. Though the training is mandatory, only 70 percent of police officers have completed it, according to the department.
But San Francisco police officials at last week’s town hall said that both police officers who were on the scene had completed crisis intervention training, including de-escalation techniques and tools on how to respond to someone experiencing a mental health crisis.
Earlier this week in New York, a police oversight commission ruled that the New York City Police Department acted with “excessive force” when officers shot and killed 19-year-old Win Rozario after he brandished scissors in front of them. Rozario, who was experiencing a mental health crisis, had called the police himself.
The San Francisco Police Department has stated that, in addition to an internal investigation, multiple independent investigations of the shooting are ongoing.
Serrato is currently recovering from his wounds. He is now facing felony charges for assault with a deadly weapon, making threats to a police officer, and several traffic violations, according to interim police chief Paul Yep.
At last week’s SFPD town hall meeting, police officials lauded the officers involved for their “remarkable courage during extremely challenging circumstances.” Police officials did not express remorse for Serrato’s shooting.
You can see the body cam footage here: https://youtu.be/2RW9H9_qYLQ?si=WR0yt9t8XeUzHTcj&t=96
The officer started the conversation calmly and non-confrontationally. The man waited until he was a few feet away from the officer before pulling out the scissors and hopping toward him. Non-lethal may have worked but they literally had seconds to respond before he got to one of them. I don’t think police should be expected to risk lifelong injuries (e.g. eye gouging) or death in response to behavior like this.
I DO think police should be expected to risk lifelong injuries, it’s just part of what they signed up for.
“Armed with a weapon, and not following directions, and coming at officers, police countered with weapons”…. FTFY.
Please don’t treat this as some kind of tragedy.
The world is better off without a guy willing to attack police with scissors.
If you need more criminals in your life, walk down Mission St between about 6th and 8th Street. We still have plenty.
This is the guy that was prowling around a woman’s home minutes prior if you hear call that prompted response. PD asked “are you ok” then attacked with scissors. Second guessing too easy.
You are making this a lot more complicated than it really is. So, yes, if you lunge at a cop with any kind of weapon, then you will be shot.
Most of the BLM killings happened because the perp ran, resisted, fought back, ran his mouth or otherwise failed to cooperate.
If a cop stops me I am civil, polite, cooperative and compliant. 99.99% of encounters with the cops are like that.
“Most of the BLM killings happened because the perp ran, resisted, fought back, ran his mouth or otherwise failed to cooperate.”
Is actually bullsh!t.
Don’t be going around threatening people, cops included, with pointy pieces of metal and if you do then expect to get shot to death and I don’t give a damn about your physical and mental ‘distress’.
There was a young women brutally stabbed to death on a charlotte street car the other day. The murderer was oh well “out of it”.
And while the progressive local press does not cover it, we have a number of local examples (from google):
74-year-old pushed into BART train (2024): In July 2024, a 74-year-old woman was killed after being pushed in front of a BART train at the Powell Street station. Police arrested Trevor Belmont, a 49-year-old described as homeless, for the murder.
Colden Kimber stabbing (2025): In August 2025, 28-year-old Colden Kimber was fatally stabbed at a bus stop while reportedly protecting women and children from a man harassing them. The 29-year-old suspect, who was described as homeless, was later arraigned.
Junipero Serra stabbing (2025): The San Francisco Police Department reported a fatal stabbing in September 2025 near Junipero Serra Boulevard and Ocean Avenue. They arrested 42-year-old Daniel Patrick Rodriguez Jr., who was a homeless man, in connection with the homicide.
We had a 35 year old father killed in front of his 8 year old in a cross-walk by a knife welding man three days ago.
I am sorry this guy took substances and did not get treated for mental illness. I am sorry he is a menace to the public. I am all for mandatory confinement for treatment of people like this.
But when that is not the “progressive” approach, letting these folks roam freely scaring and harming people, is not an option (and by the way, this is a lot of why Trump won in 2024, and an old theme see Dirty Harry) So my only regret is we the tax payers have to patch this guy up, and that he will be back on the street running st people with sissors.
Police expect who doesn’t want to be identified. You have two agencies who have different tactics, one has tasers, one has a less than lethal shotgun. No one went to work that day to say I’m going to shoot Mr Serrato. There was no time to set up less than lethal since Mr Serrato forced the issue, no pun intended.
Sorry Mission Local: Not with you on this one. No serious person can suggest that a cop can’t shoot someone who is attempting to murder them with scissors.
I wonder if the police source would have implemented de escalation tactics if he had been in the exact same situation. It’s easy to suggest from the comfort of your seat what should have been. At the end of the day, police officers want to go home.
Wait. Wasn’t this article published in 2014, 2015 and 2016? It’s as if Grand Jury Report, the DA’s “Blue Ribbon” Commission, the SFPD response to the Presidential Commission Report, and a Department of Justice Technical Report including policy changes adopted (274) either never happened or have been completely flushed down the memory hole. Great job Chief Scott, with a big thanks to former Mayor London Breed, and seriously, who cares what the SFPD says? Or the ACLU. Or the so-called “Police Commission”? And really, what difference does it make what the law says or doesn’t say? If you want the (unofficial) official word, go to the source of real power: The Police Officers Association. The Association has successfully resisted any and all attempts to improve community-police relations and make the sclerotic SFPD bureaucracy accountable to anyone other than the POA.
Well seeing as one of the 4 physical requirements for becoming a police officer in SF is how many bullets can you unload in under a minute, it’s unsurprising that this is the outcome.