SF Police Department has not released any video footage on Yanfang Wu death case for almost 6 months

(SAN FRANCISCO) In March 2024, the Asian Justice Movement (AJM) took a lead to publicly demand the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) to reopen the investigation on the 63-year-old Yanfang Wu death case in July 2023 and release the related video footage. District Attorney candidate Ryan Khojasteh followed and filed a public records request with both the SFPD and the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office (SFDA).

Now more than five months have passed and Wu died for over a year, SFPD has not yet released the result of their second round of the investigation and video footage on the Wu case.

Members of the Asian community and the public are outraged by the SFPD and SFDA for handling the Wu case which was first ruled by both agencies in 2023 as an accidental death. It has also taken too long for the SFPD to announce the conclusion of the latest investigation which was demanded by the community to relook into the Wu case when the second attack occurred against another elderly Chinese woman by the same suspect. No video footage in connection with Wu’s death has yet been released.

The Asian Justice Movement first demanded to reopen the investigation on March 10 this year on social media after the same suspect in the Wu case attacked another elderly Chinese woman in the same Bayview neighborhood on March 4.

The AJM demanded again in person to Police Chief William Scott and Mayor London

Breed at their community event on March 16. Both Scott and Breed were in the audience. Scott agreed to reopen the investigation on the case citing new evidence and the connection of two incidents.

On March 17, both Scott and Breed announced that the video related to the Wu case would be released to the public only after the investigation was completed.

"On March 17, Mayor London Breed and SFPD Chief Scott publicly promised to release the video after the SFPD investigation was completed. I understand that the investigation has long been completed. Since it's been more than five months since their public commitments, AJM asked Chief Scott today when he would release the video," Charles Jung, an attorney with the AJM, said on August 21.

Ryan Khojasteh, the only candidate challenging San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins in the November election, filed a public records request with SFPD on March 13. "I stand with the Asian community in demanding the release of the footage capturing the tragic death of Yanfang Wu," said Khojasteh.

63-year-old Yanfang Wu was pushed to the sidewalk in the Bayview neighborhood in the evening of July 3, 2023 at around 6:30pm after she got off the bus on Third Street close to Elgert Avenue.

Wu was a recent immigrant from China and moved to Bayview for only about a month when she died in the hospital on July 5. Her 71-year-old husband witnessed the incident while he was routinely walking to the bus stop everyday to pick up Wu after work at a restaurant in the Sunset District.

The husband told Wind Newspaper in 2023 that he was about half a block away from the location where his wife fell to the ground.

African American Thea Hopkins, 42, was first detained and interviewed by the homicide detail inspectors on July 6, the day after Wu died.

An Assistant District Attorney was present during the interview with Hopkins by the homicide inspectors. In the interview, Hopkins defended herself that she was running to catch a bus when she tripped on the sidewalk and fell on Wu that caused Wu to fall to the sidewalk.

The sources told Wind Newspaper that the decision to conclude the case as an accidental death and release Hopkins immediately after the interview was made by both the SFPD and SFDA. The SFDA did not respond to Wind Newspaper’s request for comment in March 2024.

Hopkins has resided in a housing unit in Bayview which was not far from the location where Wu fell.

Eight months later on March 4, 2024, a 71-year-old monolingual Chinese immigrant woman was assaulted from behind when she was on her way to a park for a morning exercise walking on the 1000 block of Gilman Avenue in Bayview. The suspect in the second attack was also Hopkins.

The victim told Wind Newspaper that she was attacked in the neck, punched in the face and shoved to the ground multiple times. The victim fainted and fell on the sidewalk for sometime until she was awake and sought help by walking to a nearby school. The school staffers called the police for her.

Hopkins was arrested in the second attack and is still in custody.

Khojasteh was born in San Jose. His parents are immigrants from Iran and have settled down in the South Bay. He graduated from Santa Clara University with a major in political science and UC Law SF (formerly UC Hastings Law School).

It was Khojasteh's childhood dream to be a career criminal prosecutor because of the tragedy that happened to his uncle when his was a young child.

Khojasteh's uncle was killed in his 30s by two young gang members aged 19 and 20 in Southern California in a robbery. The newly-wed wife of his uncle was from South Korea who was in the process of petitioning for a green card. Ultimately she was granted a green card through a new legislation authored by the late U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and able to attend court hearings on his uncle's murder case.

Since enrolling at law school, Khojasteh has been a resident of San Francisco. While Khojasteh was at law school, he was appointed by the Board of Supervisors to serve on the San Francisco Immigrant Rights Commission where he served for six years.

Khojasteh was interviewed for a prosecutor position to join the SFDA under Interim District Attorney Susie Loftus. He started to serve as a prosecutor handling juvenile cases when former District Attorney Chesa Boudin was elected.

"Two years ago today, Brooke Jenkins (whom I had never met) called me on vacation and fired me from my job at the SFDA Office," said Khojasteh in his tweet on July 15, 2024. "Today, two years later, I received my nomination documents to finalize my place on the ballot as her challenger."

After Chesa Boudin was recalled by San Francisco voters in the June 5, 2022 election, Jenkins was appointed by Mayor Breed on July 8, 2022 as an interim District Attorney. Khojasteh was among the first 15 prosecutors fired by Jenkins on July 15, one week since she took over the administration.

Khojasteh later joined the Alameda District Attorney Pamela Price's Office as a prosecutor until recently. He resigned from the position. Price will face a recall in the November election.

The nomination period for the San Francisco District Attorney race in the November election ended. Khojasteh becomes the only candidate in the race challenging Jenkins.

Khojasteh said he decided to run for District Attorney because San Francisco needs a new approach to public safety. "I am running to be effective on crime," said Khojasteh.

"The Mayor’s handpicked District Attorney has made public safety a battleground for political gain," Khojasteh added. "DA Jenkins has built a political career on pretending that arresting drug users, not drug dealers, will solve our city's problems - an irresponsible and wasteful use of limited courtroom resources."

Evidence-based solutions will be Khojasteh's approach to making San Francisco a safer city. He said he would bring law enforcement and violence prevention teams together to implement the evidence-based solutions that would protect communities and long lasting public safety.

With regards to the Wu case, Khojasteh made a public record request to both the SFPD and the SFDA in March this year seeking public records to confirm all the personnels who have participated and made decisions in the investigation of the Wu case from both the SFPD and SFDA.

Khojasteh also requested to provide all surveillance video footage of the incident, and all other footage obtained throughout the course of the investigation.

It has been more than five months since Khojasteh made the public records request. He only received confirmation of the request and has not heard since then. "This far exceeds the timeline permissible by law for a response. Public deserves answers," said Khojasteh.

“The DA's Office refused to confirm that they had an Assistant District Attorney involved in this investigation who concluded this was an ‘accident.’ It's a major problem when the DA's Office conceals information from the public, as they did here,” Khojasteh added. “The Police Department never replied to my request –– it's been 5 months –– and this violates the law around public records requests.”

“How can we expect the public to trust law enforcement in these serious cases when they are not transparent with the public and refuse to answer questions? This is unacceptable,” said Khojasteh.

“I have no idea why this renewed second investigation is taking so long? Every day that passes where justice is delayed, more trust is lost and it does a grave disservice to the people of San Francisco." said Khojasteh.

In April 2023, 24-year-old African American Banko Brown who was suspected of shoplifting was shot and killed by a Walgreen's security guard in downtown San Francisco. The security guard who is also an African American was first arrested by police officers on a murder charge and later dismissed by District Attorney Jenkins. Because of the outrage and demand by community members, the surveillance video footage was released shortly after.

"I don't see any reasons for the SFPD and SFDA to delay the release of Wu's case video footage. Why did they need to wait until the investigation was over? How would it jeopardize the investigation as Police Chief Scott responded to the Asian community?" said Khojasteh. "Why would SFPD release the video footage on all police shootings within 10 days after they occurred?"

As a career criminal prosecutor, Khojasteh believed high-profile cases, including hate crimes, should be taken to a grand jury where to seek an indictment. “This builds credibility in the charges and helps expedite the case to trial,” said Khojasteh. If he is elected as the next District Attorney, Khojasteh said he would review the evidence in the Wu case and consider taking it to a grand jury.

Wind Newspaper sent an inquiry to SFPD for comment on the Wu case investigation. SFPD did not immediately respond to the request for comment by press time.