SFPD releases body-camera footage and 911 audio from Chinese consulate

The recordings were played during a virtual town hall hosted by the police department, where SFPD Chief Bill Scott also answered questions regarding the details of the crash and subsequent shooting.

The crash happened Oct. 9 at about 3 p.m., when 31-year-old Zhanyuan Yang crashed into the Chinese consulate building in San Francisco, in what is being discussed by officials as possibly a deliberate attack. Yang’s vehicle drove into the building’s lobby on Laguna Street. 

Dispatch audio played at the town hall meeting revealed there were about 30 people in the lobby when Yang drove his vehicle through the walls. 

Before police arrived on the scene, two security guards held Yang, SFPD Acting Commander Mark Im said during the town hall meeting. The first officer to arrive on the scene was Sgt. Troy Carrasco.

In the body-camera footage, Yang can be seen pinned against a wall and covering his eyes. The video shows pepper spray stains on the wall. Yang then made “multiple, rapid downward swinging motions with the knife towards the direction of the sergeant and security guard,” Im said during the meeting. 

In the video, Carrasco tells Yang “get on the ground” and asks, “You got a gun?” before shooting him seconds later. 

“You guys should’ve told me he had a knife,” Carrasco said in the video after the shooting. 

“As the sergeant and the security guard pinned Mr. Yang from behind against the wall, Mr. Yang rotated toward the sergeant and the security guard and exposed the knife in his right hand,” Im said.

Scott said the department has not determined a motive for the crash and couldn’t confirm what Yang said after exiting the vehicle.

When asked by a caller during public comment why the officer didn’t attempt to use deescalation techniques after arriving on the scene, Scott said, “This is how our officers are trained if they believe that an active attacker event is occurring.”

Scott said an active attacker event is defined by the department as when “an individual is actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated or populated area.”

In addition to a 3.5-inch knife, officers also found a crossbow in the back of Yang’s vehicle after the shooting.

Several agencies are conducting independent investigations regarding the crash and subsequent shooting, Scott said.