SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) — A man shot by police in San Francisco’s Oceanview neighborhood earlier this month is back in the hospital, delaying his court case, his defense attorney said.
Sean Moore, 43, was scheduled to appear in court Thursday for a preliminary hearing but has been hospitalized again because of complications from surgery, according to Deputy Public Defender Brian Pearlman. The hearing has been put over to Friday, but it remains to be seen if Moore will be able to appear.
Moore, a San Francisco resident, faces charges including criminal threats, threats against an officer, assault, and battery on an officer and resisting arrest in connection with the Jan. 6 incident that led to his
shooting by police.
The shooting occurred after police responded to his home in the 500 block of Capitol Avenue around 4 a.m. on a complaint from a neighbor that Moore was banging on a shared wall. The neighbor also has a restraining order against Moore.
Police have alleged that Moore was combative, kicking and punching officers before advancing on them. The two responding officers, who have been identified as Officers Kenneth Cha and Colin Patino, used pepper spray and batons before opening fire.
Moore was shot in the groin and abdomen and underwent two surgeries after the shooting, according to Public Defender Jeff Adachi.
Moore’s family members have said that Moore has a history of mental illness.
The public defender’s office has taken an aggressive stance on the case, declining to grant additional time to prosecutors to prepare for the preliminary hearing, as is common in major cases, and publicly criticizing
the police response.
Adachi last week released video footage from officer body cameras that he said contradicted police accounts that Moore was advancing toward officers at the time he was shot.
He argued that officers should have called in a crisis intervention team after their initial contact with Moore, and that they failed to deescalate the confrontation, as is called for in department policy.
Interim Police Chief Toney Chaplin last week defended the officers’ response, arguing that they had shown “great restraint” in the face of an assault by a suspect who was larger than them and had the advantage of higher ground.
Chaplin said the officers had made efforts to de-escalate and had made use of less-lethal means before resorting to firearms.
Moore remains in custody with bail set at $2 million and is currently scheduled to appear in court on Friday.