SAN FRANCISCO—Shoy by San Francisco police officers while brandishing an apparent firearm outside a police station on 630 Valencia Street, Matthew Hoffman was taken to San Francisco General Hospital and pronounced dead on Sunday, January 4.
Two police sergeants, who will maintain anonymous, struck Hoffman with three bullets after the 32-year-old blocked their way and proceeded to draw what turned out to be a replica gun from his waistband.
“We don’t know his motive or why he challenged the officers or approached them in the first place,” police spokesman Abe Esparza said to KPIX-TV. “It was very erratic behavior by the suspect, very unusual.”
A search of Hoffman’s phone, conducted by the San Francisco Police Department, revealed the shooting to be the result of a suicide attempt. Perhaps in light of the slew of negative press concerning police shooting and brutality, Hoffman personally acquitted the officers in a suicide note that Hoffman’s family allowed to be shown to the public.
“You did nothing wrong,” Hoffman wrote. “You ended the life of a man who was too much of a coward to do it himself,” said the note. “I provoked you. I threatened your life as well as the lives of those around me.”
