San Francisco police officers smashed an innocent man’s car window, pulled him out of his vehicle and dangerously pepper-sprayed him after law enforcement made an avoidable mistake.
The innocent man reportedly died by suicide after losing everything as a result of the detainment and ensuing legal trouble.
The San Francisco Department of Police Accountability (DPA), a police watchdog agency, said Monday that two officers had violently arrested Matthew Ludwig on the night of July 4, 2024, because they wrongly believed he was driving a stolen car.
That happened because law enforcement had entered the wrong license plate into their system, according to the DPA’s findings.
Police then followed Ludwig and smashed the window of his Honda Accord while he was stopped at a red light, the watchdog agency said.
The officers, who were named as Jonathan Zepeda and Vinesh Govindbhai in a complaint filed by the DPA last May 28, then pulled him out of the car and onto the street.
Zepeda drew his gun, while Govindbhai pushed Ludwig’s shoulders and head toward the street pavement, per the complaint.
Body camera footage posted by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office showed Govindbhai telling Ludwig to ‘put your f***ing hands behind your back’ after yanking him out of the car.
Govindbhai then warned Ludwig that he was ‘about to get sprayed’ before pepper-spraying his face in very close proximity.
I’ve personally known 4 SPD officers, and not one of them has been “right in the head”!