San Francisco Police Department shot dead a man after a three-hour standoff during which he was drinking vodka and snorting cocaine.
Sergio Barrios, 40, snorted cocaine, drank vodka and wine, listened to music and watched videos as dozens of police officers surrounded him, demanding he surrender a pistol he had sitting in front of him.
Eventually, when Barrios took off his rosary and moved his hand towards the gun, he was shot with three fatal rounds from a police rifle, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
The incident, which happened on the afternoon of May 19, began when a neighbor of Barrios called the police to say he had broken into their house and was armed with a gun.
San Francisco Police Department shot dead a man after a three-hour standoff during which he was drinking vodka and snorting cocaine
Police body cam footage captured the moment Barrios extended his arm and grabbed the pistol which had been sitting a few feet in front of him on the floor
At around 2.20pm SFPD officers responded to the call to the 100 block of Bosworth Street in the Glen Park neighborhood
He told police he recognized Barrios from a previous incident in 2021 in which he had shot and killed his own dog.
At around 2.20pm SFPD officers responded to the call to the 100 block of Bosworth Street in the Glen Park neighborhood, San Francisco Police Commander Paul Yep said during a press conference on Friday.
Surveillance footage from the residential building at around that time showed Barrios walking near the backyard with a sledgehammer slung over his shoulder.
When the first police arrived, the caller directed them to an alley between a house and a garage where Barrios was seen in video standing with a pistol in one hand and a bottle of alcohol in the other.
When officers then ordered Barrios to drop the gun, he tossed it a few feet in front of him and crouched in a seated position. He also threw on top of his pistol a set of keys.
Over the next three and a half hours, 55 officers arrived on the scene, including Spanish-speaking liaison officers and an armored vehicle. SFPD set up a command post and staging area with the armored vehicle and formed a perimeter around the area.
At around the time police were first called regarding Barrios, building surveillance footage showed him walking around with a sledgehammer slung over his shoulder
SFPD established a command post outside the building. More than 55 officers attended the scene, including a Spanish-speaking officer who was trying to communicate via a PA system
When police told Barrios that they wanted him to surrender the gun and come out because his family was worried about him, he replied: ‘What family?’
Barrios was given commands in Spanish to move away from the gun, but he generally ignored all instructions.
Officers tried calling his cell phone and encouraged him via a PA system to answer the phone, but he would not respond.
Police also coordinated with his family and played multiple voice notes recorded by one of his relatives over the PA system in the hopes it would calm him.
They told him via the system that his family were outside and that they were concerned about him, to which he replied in Spanish: ‘My family? What family?’
Police saw him pull out a dollar bill, appearing to contain cocaine, and snort the substance. He was also drinking from both a bottle of vodka and a separate bottle of wine.
‘He’s got coke on a dollar bill, he’s snorting coke right now,’ police were heard saying in the body worn camera footage.
‘The coke is kicking in,’ they could be heard saying moments later. ‘He did another round of coke, he’s snorting more cocaine.’
As Barrios was shot with three fatal rounds from a police rifle, he collapsed to the ground and police flooded into the alley
When they cleared the scene, police discovered a loaded 44-caliber pistol with three rounds
Police also found two separate bottles of alcohol from which he had been seen drinking
Eventually, Barrios was seen in police video removing a rosary from around his neck and a little later moving his hand towards the gun and the keys. As he did so multiple police officers were heard shouting, ‘No’, but he swiftly grabbed the keys and retracted his arm.
Moments later, at around 5.50pm, he went to grab the gun, and police fired, causing him to collapse to the ground from a hunched position.
He was taken to hospital and immediately tended to by medical staff but later died of his injuries.
When police cleared the scene they recovered a 44-caliber pistol, loaded with three rounds, one vodka bottle and one wine bottle, among other items.
The shooting is the first time San Francisco police killed a person during current District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’ time in office.
Her prosecutors will decide if file criminal charges will be filed against Buhagiar, a 22-year-veteran in the SFPD, who shot Barrios. That was not his first involvement in a fatal shooting.
He was one of seven officers who in 2018 fired bullets into a vehicle after a murder suspect fired two gunshots from inside.
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