San Francisco officer in Alex Nieto shooting: ‘I was forced’

The weapon turned out to be a Taser stun gun that Nieto carried for his job as a security guard, but the officer, Richard Schiff, told jurors that he didn’t know that when he fired 13 rounds, then reloaded his pistol and fired 10 more rounds.

Schiff was the first witness in a civil trial at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, where Nieto’s parents are suing the city for alleged wrongful death and civil rights violations over the shooting in March 2014 in Bernal Heights Park.

Few police shootings yield a public trial, and so the Nieto case is offering a close-up look at an issue that has polarized the country in recent years.

The four officers were cleared of criminal charges by city prosecutors, but the case has prompted a series of protests by supporters and friends of Nieto, a 27-year-old City College of San Francisco student.

Nieto’s parents sat Wednesday in the front row of the court gallery, watching as their attorney, Adante Pointer, walked Schiff through the evening of March 21, 2014.

Schiff, who had spent about two months on patrol after completing his academy training, testified that he had been parked in a patrol car at a gas station with his training sergeant, Jason Sawyer, who was later promoted to lieutenant.

“As we got out of car, he took what we call a boxing stance,” Schiff said, getting up to show the jury how Nieto allegedly raised his arms to his chest.

Schiff said he saw the pointed weapon and the red laser beam before he began shooting, and stopped when Sawyer instructed him to cease fire.

Authorities said two later-arriving officers also fired upon Nieto as he lay on the ground, mistakenly believing he was returning the officers’ fire amid the chaos.