SAN LEANDRO, Calif. — Body camera footage released by ABC7 News shows an unhoused man being handcuffed, assaulted and abandoned by San Leandro police officers after they determined he had not committed a crime.
The footage dates back to December 2024 but was publicly released after San Leandro Police Internal Affairs Sgt. Mike Olivera discovered it while reviewing older body camera videos and filed a nine-page complaint with the city on this and “other issues.”
Mike Rains, Olivera’s attorney, stated, “When you apply force to people, you handcuff them, and that happens, you have to make sure you’re making a record of it. And the best record you can make is you take him into custody. You tell them they’re under arrest, you write a report, you let the DA sort it out.”
The arresting officers failed to document the incident despite it involving the use of force against the unhoused man, identified as 33-year-old Shaquille Coleman.
According to the report, two San Leandro police officers arrived at a strip mall after a clerk at a natural foods store pushed an alarm button “because she thought Coleman and the ambassadors were about to fight.”
The officers attempted to make Coleman leave the premises. Officer Suzanne Mann asked him to identify himself, to which Coleman replied, “I’m a person who’s been around here, here, here and here.”
Mann asked if he was going to be difficult. Coleman responded, “It was no problem.”
The two officers attempted to handcuff Coleman to search him but were unable to do so until a third officer arrived.
As stated in the report, “None of the officers told Coleman he had committed a crime. He did have a receiving stolen property conviction in his past, and he balked when they tried to put him in the police car.”
A police supervisor, Lt. Antwinette Turner, arrived in time to see the interaction turn violent.
As Coleman resisted, saying, “Stop playing with me, bruh. Stop!,” the officers began to use force. According to the report, “Officer Navarro pulled Coleman’s braids trying to pull him into the car.”
Coleman was visibly upset, shouting, “Why would you do that to my hair, bruh?”
The officers then pulled a Taser on him, forcing Coleman to comply.
“The bodycam continued to record while Officer Mann tried to figure out what to do next. She considers what San Leandro police call ‘a green sheet’ — a 5150 or psychiatric hold,” the report stated.
Mann began to fill out paperwork before determining they had no evidence to support the perception that Coleman “was a danger to himself or others.”
“Well, shoot, actually, they’re saying he didn’t do anything?” she said, concluding they did not have a case against Coleman.
This prompted her to switch to a new plan.
“We’re going to go way north and then dump him and then we’re going to go back to them,” she said.
She decided to leave him in Oakland, but not “near any BART stations,” expressing concern that “he’d just come back.”
Neither Officer Navarro nor Turner objected. Turner stated, “I’ll let you do whatever you want,” a remark that later drew criticism from former San Francisco Police Department commander and police practices expert Rich Corriea.
He said, “You can’t in the 21st century go to a scene as a boss and not do anything. If there’s some support, some action, you need to take some advice, some guidance. You’re not there as a passive observer. You’re there to add value.”
With apparent agreement among the officers, “Officer Mann gave Shaquille Coleman a choice — Santa Rita County Jail or a ride north to Oakland.”
She asked Coleman if he wanted a ride north to walk off and “figure [his] life out.”
Coleman replied, “Nah.”
The officers nevertheless drove him north, traveling approximately seven miles from where they initially detained him.
Officer Navarro returned Coleman’s braids upon request as Mann removed the handcuffs.
The officers then drove away, leaving Coleman behind.
Following Olivera’s complaint last month, “Chief Averiett launched an independent third-party investigation that found ‘certain personnel violated department policies’ and that they faced corrective action.”
Since submitting the complaint about a year ago, Olivera has faced retaliation, according to his attorney.
“He’s been discriminated against. He’s been retaliated against, and the treatment he’s received within this administration,” Rains said.
The ABC7 News I-Team contacted all officers involved but did not receive responses.
The team reached Turner by phone at her new position with BART police as deputy chief in charge of the Progressive Policing and Community Engagement Bureau.
Although Turner declined to be interviewed, a spokesperson said the I-Team “met her one day after work.”
According to the report, “I-Team’s Dan Noyes asked, ‘Your officers dumped that man up north in Oakland. Is that the way you do business here? Chief, you have to answer to the public. You realize that, right?’” Turner did not respond.
Corriea told the team, “I find this incident with this gentleman outside the health food store really disturbing to the point where I almost didn’t want to weigh in on it because it’s so disturbing.”
The Anti Police-Terror Project, described as a “Black-led, multi-racial, intergenerational coalition working to eradicate police terror in communities of color,” issued a statement condemning the officers’ actions.
“This was not a mistake. This was not a lapse in judgment. This was a deliberate act of state violence, humiliation, and displacement,” the statement said.
“We reject any attempt to frame this as an isolated incident. This is part of a broader pattern of policing that criminalizes poverty, displaces vulnerable people, and evades accountability through silence and internal processes,” it added.
The group called for a thorough and independent investigation, “immediate public disclosure” of findings and disciplinary actions, “full accountability for every officer who participated in or enabled this abuse,” and “an end to practices that displace and criminalize unhoused residents across city lines.”
Co-founder and Executive Director Cat Brooks said, “This is what policing looks like when there is no accountability. An unarmed Black man, already vulnerable, was brutalized and then discarded like he didn’t matter. They knew he had committed no crime and still chose violence, humiliation, and displacement. Our communities deserve dignity, transparency, and systems rooted in care, not cruelty.”
Whether the officers will face consequences remains unclear.
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