SAN FRANCISCO — The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office has launched a formal investigation after the release of a video Friday night showing deputies beating a man with batons in San Francisco’s Mission District.
The video, released by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office on Twitter around 5:30 p.m. Friday, shows two deputies striking a man on the ground repeatedly with batons after a pursuit.
In a subsequent tweet the public defender’s office describes the video as “shocking and brutal.” The caption on the 13-minute video states that it comes from surveillance cameras that record in 10-second increments with gaps in between, “So the beating was actually twice as long as what is shown.”
Alameda County sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly said Friday evening that the department had been alerted to the video shortly after it was posted online and had immediately started an internal affairs investigation into the incident.
“We’re going to do a complete and thorough investigation into this incident and figure it out,” Kelly said.
Kelly said the capture and arrest shown in the video occurred early Thursday morning after a pursuit that started in San Leandro around 1:30 a.m.
Deputies had been patrolling a hotel parking lot in the 17200 block of Foothill Boulevard in San Leandro when they spotted a stolen 2015 Mercedes C300 sedan, Kelly said.
When they approached the vehicle, the suspect inside started the car, ignored orders to stop and allegedly rammed two police cars, injuring one deputy and disabling his patrol vehicle, Kelly said.
The suspect then led deputies on a chase on Interstate Highway 580 into Oakland and then west toward San Francisco, crossing the Bay Bridge at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour, Kelly said.
He exited the freeway in San Francisco, struck a parked car on a city street and fled on foot before his capture, which was captured on the video seen Friday.
Deputies detained Stanislav Petrov, who was taken to San Francisco General Hospital for treatment.
