According to The Examiner, Kenneth Harding, the 19-year-old killed by San Francisco police in a shootout Saturday, was a convicted pimp accused of having a 14-year-old girl perform oral sex on him and later demanding the teen make money for him through prostitution, court documents show.
On Saturday afternoon, 19-year old Kenneth Harding was shot and killed by police conducting a routine Muni fare inspection in the Bayview.
According to SF Weekly, Harding, a Washington State parolee, was wanted in Seattle as a person of interest in last week's slaying of a 19-year old pregnant woman, Tanaya Gilbert.
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A little before 5 p.m. on Saturday, two uniformed SFPD officers were checking for tickets on the T-Third line at a station near the intersection of Third Street and Oakdale Avenue, and stopped Harding for Muni fare evasion. Allegedly, when the officers attempted to detain Harding, he fled on foot and was shot multiple times by police. The suspect eventually succumbed to his injuries and died later that night at an area hospital.
Neither of the officers were injured during the incident.
"Information is still preliminary," SFPD Sgt. Michael Andraychak told the Examiner, "but we believe that during the foot pursuit, the suspect fired at the uniformed officers."
Later, police reported that Harding had drawn a gun and fired indiscriminately at the pursuing officers.
However, ABC 7 reports there were some at the scene who disputed the police's official version of events:
Eyewitnesses...[told] ABC7 News they didn't see any shots being fired at the officers.
"I just seen shots going forward," said resident Henry Taylor. " I didn't see shots coming backwards."
Police said they have since recovered the gun the suspect reportedly used in the shooting, which had been removed from the scene by a bystander. "Due to the cooperation of the community, independent witnesses, and the incredible teamwork of the Bayview officers and the gang task force, we recovered the weapon at 10:30 last night," SFPD Chief Greg Suhr told KTVU during an AIDS walk in Golden Gate Park. "God bless the Bayview community members who had the courage to come forward and pretty much tell us the entire story."
A few hours after the shooting took place, a gristly video was posted on YouTube depicting the tragic incident's bloody aftermath.
The video shows a large crowd gathering around the injured suspect, who is lying on ground in a pool of his own blood. The crowd appears largely hostile to the police and numerous bystanders can be seen expressing shock and dismay.
At about 0:15 on the video, what looks like a silver handgun can be seen on the sidewalk in the lower right-hand corner of the video. Around 1:21, a bystander can be seen picking up what appears to be a cellphone, presumably the victim's, off the sidewalk.
