Years after a fatal Glen Park shooting, award-winning documentary filmmaker and executive editor of the San Francisco Bay View Kevin Epps will go on trial Monday for murder.
The jury will hear opening statements and the government’s case against Epps, 57, who shot and killed Marcus Polk in 2016 in what Epps says was self-defense at his own home. The two men knew each other: Polk’s former wife and Epps’ fiancée at the time were sisters.
Epps was not criminally charged until 2019, three years after the killing.
Epps is a well-known figure in San Francisco. He created the documentary “Straight Outta Hunters Point” in 2003, and his film “Sucker Free City,” directed by Spike Lee, aired on Showtime.
In 2024, he took over editorship of the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper, and just last month, the Society of Professional Journalists of Northern California awarded him the Silver Heart Award for revitalizing the paper when it was “on the brink of closure.”
The award noted his work in Black media and mentoring members of the community.
“It’s feeling surreal this whole experience — after all those years, to have to stand trial for this situation,” Epps said in an interview. He called the circumstances “painful,” but said he is trying to keep his composure for the sake of his children, the youngest of whom is 5 years old.
Three years after the shooting, Epps was arrested for murder. The case relied in part on digital images of the shooting by local forensic analyst Jason Fries of 3D Forensic Inc., according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
At the 2019 preliminary hearing, prosecutors used the images to show that Polk may have turned away from Epps when he was shot, suggesting that the shooting may not have been self-defense.
Polk’s ex-wife, Starr Gul, who was present at the time of the shooting, also testified as a witness.
Gul, whose sister was Epps’ fiancée and is the mother of his children, reportedly said during the hearing that Polk, recently released from jail and homeless, was picking up trash outside Epps’ house.
She alleged that Polk walked into the house as Epps told him not to, and that Epps followed him inside and shot him from 15 to 20 feet away.
Epps did not offer details about the shooting at the preliminary hearing, and has not spoken publicly about it. In a trial brief filed last month summarizing the incident, Epps’ attorneys wrote that Polk “barged” into the house, became “erratic” and “threatened to ‘air out’ Mr. Epps.”
Polk was on parole at the time of the shooting for lewd acts with a child, according to the brief. Court filings from prosecutors and defense attorneys in this case also outline Polk’s history of drug abuse and violent and threatening behavior — including multiple protective orders against him for domestic violence incidents with Gul.
Epps also had a troubled past, with arrests for drugs and driving without a license in the 1980s and ‘90s. But he has been living freely in San Francisco since the 2016 shooting, except for a months-long stint in jail in 2019 when former District Attorney George Gascón decided to file charges against him.
In a highly unusual move, the judge on the case allowed Epps to be released on bail and a monitoring device. A few years later, the judge terminated Epps’ home detention and, eventually, his electronic monitoring.
After the 2019 preliminary hearing, the judge determined there was enough evidence to proceed to trial, which will begin Monday.
But the coward who shot Banko Brown outside of walgreens was exonerated in the media by Crooke Jenkins less than 3 days after the event? She needs to be in jail.