“During the beating, Mr. Petrov is heard crying out and saying, ‘I’m sorry, ‘ ‘Help me, ‘ and ‘Oh my God.’ The deputies stopped striking Mr. Petrov when other peace officers from multiple law enforcement agencies arrived”.
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The Sheriff’s Office said that early on the morning of November 12, Petrov fled from police in a suspected stolen auto, caused a deputy to suffer minor injuries after he rammed a police cruiser, and led officers on a high-speed chase before he crashed into a parked vehicle and fled on foot.
The pursuit ended at Stevenson and 14th streets in San Francisco when Petrov ran out of gas and crashed the auto.
Last year, TV helicopter footage showed San Bernardino sheriff’s deputies beating a man at the end of a freaky pursuit on horseback.
Once in San Francisco, Petrov drove through city streets at high speed, driving through red lights and driving the wrong way on one-way streets until he ran out of gas and crashed the stolen auto at the corner of Stevenson Street and 14th Street. Santamaria and Wieber left their vehicle and continued their pursuit on foot.
The beating occurred a short distance away on Clinton Park.
The pursuit hit speeds of over 100 miles per hour as deputies followed Petrov across the Bay Bridge and eventually chased him on foot before tackling him.
Deputies can be seen in two surveillance videos running down Petrov in a desolate alley and beating him for about 40 seconds.
The San Francisco public defender’s office received the alleyway surveillance footage from an anonymous sender and posted it on YouTube in November. He did not explain the time lapse between the release of the video and the announcement of charges.
Petrov lays helplessly on the ground while being struck by the officers, and though he made several attempts to get up, it does not appear as if he is resisting.
“Policing that violates our constitutional rights damages the reputation of every person that wears the uniform, and it damages the public’s perception of those that are sworn to serve”, Gascn said in the statement. “When officers take the law into their own hands, they undermine the moral authority of the entire criminal justice system”.
Santamaria is a 14-year veteran of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, while Wieber has been with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office for three years.
Both deputies were expected to surrender on Wednesday and will be held on $140,000 bail, officials said.
Petrov suffered a concussion with a mild brain injury, deep head cuts and multiple broken bones in both hands, authorities said.
Only one of 11 deputies at the scene turned on his body camera, a fact that led the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office to change its body camera policy from optional to mandatory.
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón said Tuesday that an investigation into the incident would continue.
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Despite skirting charges tied to the police chase, Petrov landed in jail anyway after federal prosecutors indicted him on drug and weapons charges days after he filed a claim against Alameda County.
