San Francisco police are set to provide new details Thursday on their fatal shooting of a man who crashed a car into the Chinese Consulate earlier this month, including releasing new video from the incident.
Police scheduled a virtual town hall in the afternoon to update people on the investigation into the Oct. 9 crash that ended with the death of Zhanyuan Yang. San Francisco police typically host such town halls within 10 days of fatal police shootings.
Yang, a 31-year-old San Francisco resident, rammed a car into the visa office of the consulate, which is in a residential neighborhood next to a major street. Investigators so far haven’t released a possible motive or provided details of the shooting, including whether Yang had a weapon.
Sergii Molchanov was in line waiting for his turn to submit his visa documents when he said the blue Honda sedan barreled in through the main doors at full speed, barely missing him.
Molchanov told The Associated Press that the car struck a wall and the driver was bleeding from his head as he got out of the car, yelling about the C.C.P., an abbreviation for the Chinese Communist Party
Another witness, Tony Xin, told KTVU-TV that the driver was holding two knives when he exited the car and began arguing with security guards.
Police arrived less than a minute later, he said.
The crash was condemned by the Chinese government and by the White House. It took place as San Francisco prepared to host next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, a gathering of world leaders from Pacific Rim nations.
The San Francisco consulate has been targeted a number of times before. Among the most serious was a fire set by a Chinese man on New Year’s Day 2014 at the main entrance. It charred a section of the outside of the building.
The man, who was living in the San Francisco Bay Area, told authorities he was driven by voices he was hearing. He was sentenced to nearly three years in prison.
