Podcast Episode Summary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tg55aI_Bks&feature=related
Kenneth Wade Harding Shot by SFPD after Dodging Muni Fare
Kenneth Wade Harding, a 19-year-old convicted pimp from Seattle wanted for questioning over a quadruple shooting in Seattle, was shot and killed by San Francisco Police officers in Bayview after he was accused of fare-dodging on Muni.
The aftermath of the shooting was caught on video as police keep the crowd away from Harding while he bleeds to death. The Kenneth Wade Harding shooting took place on July 16 at around 4:40pm on 3rd Street between Oakdale and Palou.
ShotSpotter showed that a total of nine shots were fired, though that technology can't determine which shots came from which guns.
Do You Believe the SFPD's Version of Kenneth Harding's Death?
It's not unreasonable to mistrust the police when they say that a shooting victim fired first- remember Oscar Grant, who was supposedly armed? In this case, though, Kenneth Harding was definitely armed, according to both police and witnesses. Eyewitness video purports to show Harding's gun on the pavement, which disappears partway through the video, allegedly picked up by someone in the crowd. This aspect of the official version of the story is problematic: Bayview and Hunter's Point residents are not quite ready to believe that members of the crowd drawn by the shooting stole all the evidence.
Some witnesses say that Harding shot first, while others say that the cops shot first as Harding was running from them.
The SFPD says that it later recovered the gun, but the weapon doesn't match the bullets found at the murder scene connected to Harding. Is there any indication that the police knew who Harding was when they detained him? It doesn't seem that way: according to SFPD Chief Greg Suhr, Harding ran when police challenged him to produce a Muni transfer. Also, Seattle police don't actually have a solid case against Harding yet in the Seattle shooting, which left a teenage girl and her unborn daughter dead.
This incident makes the SFPD look bad: they don't enjoy a good reputation in Hunter's Point as it is, and video footage of cops pointing guns at passersby as a man bleeds to death is not what City Hall needs right now. Harding was black; the identities of the officers involved in the shooting have been withheld, but several white officers can be seen in the video, and that is what is angering the neighborhood.
This is the third shooting involving the police within two months.
NowPublic Staff. (2011). Kenneth wade harding killed by SFPD in bayview- video. NowPublic. Retrieved from http://www.nowpublic.com/world/kenneth-wade-harding-killed-sfpd-bayview-video-2815776.html.
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