SAN FRANCISCO — Inside a packed town hall meeting in the city's troubled Bayview-Hunters Point district, Police Chief Greg Suhr was cursed and shouted down by outraged residents while he tried to explain why police checking for transit tickets fired on a young parolee who ran away from them.
One man was held from rushing the podium. Another, microphone in hand, began moving closer to the chief, intensifying the uncomfortable situation.
"What are you and all your staff going to do from this point on about the community?" he demanded. "You see what the problem is — let's fix it!"
"I'm standing five feet away from you trying to do just that," Suhr replied.
"No, you're not!" the man contended.
"Yes, I am!" Suhr countered.
Before Suhr became police chief, he had built support in the Bayview as a tough, effective station house commander. But last week's shooting death of 19-year-old Kenneth Harding has evolved into a perplexing mystery that may do little to quell tension between the police and the community.
Police said officers gunned down Harding on July 16 in self-defense only after he first shot at them. Then they released information that the dead man was a parolee sought for questioning about a homicide in Seattle and that he had residue on one hand, showing he had fired a gun before dying.
But the community reacted with anger to the shooting of a young man who was videotaped bleeding helplessly in the middle of a Bayview street while police stood around him with guns drawn and a crowd gathered.
Then in a startling turn of events, authorities announced on Thursday that Harding had not been killed in a hail of police bullets after-all. They said he evidently shot himself — either intentionally or by accident — with a .380-caliber bullet that passed through his neck and into his head, killing him. A bullet of that caliber was found in his jacket pocket but the gun was missing. He suffered one additional wound to the leg.
Police said the officers could not have fired the fatal bullet because they use .40-caliber handguns that cannot fire .380 ammunition.
As the investigation continues, Suhr on Friday demonstrated how he believes Harding might have shot and killed himself with his own gun.
"Apparently the officers shot and hit the suspect in the leg," Suhr said. "So imagine if you would, an instant hamstring pain pull would cause the person to lurch and the gun entered right side of the neck and lodged behind the cheek."
But many people in the community simply will not believe the latest police account, said Keevin O'Brien, a local minister who co-organized Wednesday's town hall gathering. And he said the shooting feeds into the hopelessness young people feel when they are poor and out of work.
"The emotions are still raw. Police can sense the frustration in the community," O'Brien said. "The pot was simmering and now it may boil over."
Robert Weisberg, a law professor at nearby Stanford University, said while the forensic evidence may support the San Francisco police it is unlikely to change the current climate in the wake of other controversial police shootings in the Bay Area.
On July 3, two Bay Area Rapid Transit officers shot and killed a homeless man in San Francisco after he allegedly threw a knife at them.
On New Year's Day 2009, a white Bay Area Rapid Transit officer shot an unarmed black passenger at a station in Oakland. The videotaped shooting triggered violent protests that resulted in numerous arrests and vandalism. The officer later was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
"From one side, there's enough suspicion that any police-involved shootings in this area will reinforce serious concerns about the dynamic between the police and residents," said Weisberg, the director of Stanford's criminal justice center.
The uproar over Harding's shooting was fueled partly by video posted online by witnesses. It shows officers with guns drawn watching a wounded Harding trying to get up numerous times before he finally collapses into a pool of blood. Bystanders asked officers why they weren't administering aid to Harding or calling for an ambulance.
"Where's his gun?" some yelled.
San Francisco police disclosed Harding's background: He was sought as a person of interest in a recent Seattle shooting that killed a 19-year-old pregnant woman and injured three others. And he was on parole after serving 22 months in prison for attempting to prostitute a 14-year-old girl.
Capt. Paul Chignell, who runs the Bayview police station, said Friday that police want to be transparent and release as much information as they can about the incident to diffuse hostility.
"We want the community to get all of the facts, without conjecture. That's what we've been trying to do," said Chignell, watching the groundbreaking Friday of a new library a couple of blocks away from last week's shooting.
Bayview community activist Ashley Rhodes said Friday there's also frustration because of a lack of jobs for young people in the area. He shared that with Mayor Ed Lee during the new library groundbreaking.
"Ed, right now, we need to stop the killings of these young people," Rhodes said. "We need jobs. We need you to step up for us."
"You know me," Lee responded. "You know I'm not giving up on any community."
Supervisor Malia Cohen, whose district includes the Bayview, said after Wednesday's town hall meeting that it demonstrated "the ugly side of democracy." She is glad Suhr said he will be back.
"Unfortunately, we need to continue having these types of conversations in order to move forward," Cohen said.