'A Hostage Being Shot, Especially By Us, Is A Failure': Officers Lament SFPD Killing Two Men

San Francisco CA

05 June, 2022

6:54 PM

Description

By Joe Eskenazi, Mission Local June 3, 2022 The San Francisco Police Department on May 19 shot and killed two men, 57-year-old Michael MacFhionghain and 49-year-old Rafael Mendoza, as they grappled in the dirt and filth beneath I-280. It was an agonizing and chaotic affair. Calls reporting a violent altercation between two unhoused men directed the police to a spot under the highway, where they found MacFhionghain wielding a knife and atop Mendoza. Mendoza was clutching MacFhionghain's wrist in an attempt to stave off the knife; a San Francisco police officer later told Mission Local that the image could have been the accompanying illustration for the dictionary definition of "attempted murder." The men essentially held this awkward pose for nearly 10 minutes. To read the full article, click here. Mission Local covers San Francisco from the vantage point of the Mission, a neighborhood with all of the promise and problems of a major city. You can support Mission Local here.