San Francisco officer charged in death of man who died three years after being shot

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A San Francisco police officer has been charged with the shooting death of a man who died three years after the deadly encounter, authorities said Tuesday. 

Officer Kenneth Cha shot Sean Moore on Jan. 6, 2017 during a restraining order violation call, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin said in an announcement. Morre died on Jan. 20, 2020 and a coroner determined his death to be a homicide, Boudin's office said. 

Cha is charged with voluntary manslaughter and assault with a semi-automatic firearm, along with enhancements for personal use of a firearm and infliction of great bodily injury.

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Officer Kenneth Cha was involved in both of San Francisco's only two police shootings in 2017, according to the public defender's office. Here, Cha displays injuries allegedly sustained in a Jan. 6 confrontation with a mentally ill man at his Ocean View home that ended in Cha shooting and seriously injuring the man. He was charged Tuesday with voluntary manslaughter after a man died from his injuries, District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced (Photo By Liz Hafalia/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images) (Photo By Liz Hafalia/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

"We rely on officers to follow their training and to deescalate situations; instead, in just eight minutes, Officer Cha elevated a nonviolent encounter to one that took Sean Moore’s life. Sean Moore was unarmed and at his own home when Officer Cha shot him twice," Boudin said.  

Fox News reached out to the San Francisco Police Department. 

Boudin said an investigation revealed Cha lacked a basis to even arrest Moore. Officers were responding to a call by a neighbor who said Moore was violating a temporary restraining order prohibiting noise harassment at the time of the incident. Moore denied harassing the neighbor and said he had been sweeping a flight of stairs leading to his apartment unit and throwing out the trash. 

He repeatedly ordered the officers to leave, which they ignored, prosecutors said. Cha pepper-sprayed Moore during the encounter along with his partner, Officer Colin Patino, inadvertently, authorities said. Both officers then went downstairs. 

Moore came out of the apartment but remained behind a security gate as officers demanded he return the restraining order papers. He dropped the papers through the gate and went upstairs, prosecutors said. 

San Francisco's City Hall in California. (Istock)

At that point, the officers allegedly told Moore he was under arrest and Cha threatened to kick in the gate if he refused to come outside. Moore came down and told them he needed medical attention. Prosecutors say the pair ran up the stairs a third time with their batons.

Patino struck Moore with a baton, prompting Moore to hit him back. Patino fell down the stairs. Moore then kicked in the direction of Cha, who opened fire, striking Moore twice in the abdomen, authorities said. The shots lacerated Moore's liver and hit his right colon, along with scarring internal organs and causing severe stomach adhesions, prosecutors said.

A medical examiner determined the cause of death to be a homicide and that Moore died from acute intestinal obstruction from the bullet wounds. Boudin's office noted that three separate courts ruled the officers acted unlawfully.

Moore had previously been charged with eight criminal counts based on the deadly incident. The charges were eventually dismissed. 

Tony Montoya, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, said officers were met with a "very hostile" Moore. 

"We support Officer Cha's constitutionally protected right to present his defense against these charges that stemmed from this extremely volatile incident that an autopsy concluded took Mr. Moore's life while he was serving time in prison on another matter," he said. 

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin posing outside his office in San Francisco. A San Francisco police officer was charged Tuesday with voluntary manslaughter after a man he shot in 2017 died from his injuries, District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced. San Francisco Police Officer Kenneth Cha was charged with voluntary manslaughter and assault with a semiautomatic firearm, along with enhancements for and infliction of great bodily injury, in the death of Sean Moore, an unarmed man he shot on January 6, 2017. Moore died from his injuries last year. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

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Moore's mother, Cleo Moore, cried and said she was "very happy" when she learned of the charges against Cha, Boudin said. Cha is the 18th SFPD officer to be charged for excessive force in the past 12 years, according to a review of by FOX station KTVU-TV. 

Moore's family settled a lawsuit with the city for $3.25 million earlier this year. Cha was involved in another shooting four months after shooting Moore when he killed a knife-wielding man at a Subway restaurant who attacked and stabbed an employee, KPIX-TV reported.