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Mario Woods was shot and killed by the SFPD on Dec. 2.
With tears in her eyes, Board of Supervisors President London Breed today introduced a resolution calling for a federal investigation into the death of
Mario Woods.
“San Francisco needs to follow Chicago’s example,” Breed said, referring to that city's investigation of the shooting death of black teenager Laquan McDonald at the hands of Chicago police. (And which led to murder charges for the officer involved, as well as the dismissal of Chicago's police chief.)
The board was actually still in roll call, but the meeting came to a halt for a series of guests to address the body — first among them, Mario Woods’ mother, Gwen Woods, who received a standing ovation from a chamber filled with supporters.
Mrs. Woods, so emotional she could barely be heard at times, likened the police officers who fired the shots that killed her 26-year-old son on Dec. 2 to those SFPD officers ensnared — but ultimately unscathed — by controversy over racist text messages.
“Every time I wake up in the night, I see my son shot down like an animal. Just like they said they were going to do in those texts,” Mrs. Woods said. “Thank you for the apology, but somebody please tell me, why are they back at work? Why?”
Amos Brown, former supervisor and current minister of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, was on hand to comfort Mrs. Woods and give the board a piece of his mind.
“We must stop living this lie that we are a liberal town,” Brown said. “I once stood in this room and said, ‘Ferguson is here.’ Geographically, we are on the bay. But in terms of the police — not all of them, but too many — we are Ferguson. And I was vindicated.”
