Newly released bodycam video shows San Francisco Police beating a Black man so badly that the victim ended up hospitalized in intensive care with severe injuries.
Attorneys for 33-year-old Kevon Gibson say the violence was so excessive that the district attorney and police department attempted a cover-up. They say without the body cam video, they might have gotten away with it.
The newly released video shows three white officers yanking Gibson out of an elevator in a residential hotel on Sixth Street in August of 2025.
Local media reported that someone called police after Gibson and another resident fought in the building.
“Help, help,” Gibson yells as the white officers violently wrestled him to the floor.
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He continues yelling, “Stop, stop,” but the officers instead double down. The video reveals one of the cops repeatedly punching Gibson in the side.
“I can’t breathe. I need air,” he screams as cops continued to beat him and kneel on his head.
“Gibson was hospitalized in the ICU for several days because of the beating,” the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office said, according to KTVU TV. “He was then transferred to jail, where he remained for the next year while facing charges.”
The DA says Gibson had a loaded 9-millimeter handgun in his pants pocket and refused officers’ attempts at patting him down.
The Public Defender’s Office is trying to hold the officers to account and says it plans to file complaints against the trio with the city’s Department of Police Accountability, according to the San Francisco Standard.
It also says it will ask state regulators to decertify the three cops to remove them from the force.
“It’s our job as public defenders to fight back against government overreach, and to protect the community by confronting violence perpetrated by state actors,” public defender Mano Raju said. “This is why we are exposing this police brutality and the district attorney’s office’s attempts to cover it up.”
The prosecutors deny they tried to cover up the violent nature of the arrest.
Police charged Gibson with a number of violations, including three felony counts of resisting arrest. His attorneys say the DA offered a plea deal, but it would have made it more difficult for Gibson to bring civil charges against the cops. He opted for a trial instead.
The Public Defender’s Office also accused prosecutors of trying to conceal the audio on the violent bodycam video during Gibson’s trial. And they argue they also tried to hide that the resident Gibson argued with on that August day had a “propensity for violence and racism,” KTVU reported.
The jury found Gibson guilty of misdemeanor resisting arrest charges, but innocent on the three felony resisting arrest counts. It also found him guilty on the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, the TV station reported.
“These charges were based on the lies that these officers told to try to justify the excessive force they used against Mr. Gibson,” Bonnie Chan-Silen, the deputy public defender, said after the verdict.
The District Attorney’s Office accused the public defender of “remarkable disrespect.”
“Calling this a ‘cover-up’ isn’t just an attack on our prosecutors; it shows remarkable disrespect for the court and the jurors who heard the evidence and rendered the verdict,” the DA’s office said.
Police also doubled down after critics questioned how officers handled the arrest, pointing out that the DA’s Independent Investigations Bureau “found the use of force was justified under California law.”
Gibson, meantime is appealing his conviction on the gun possession charge. He says he only had the gun as a means of temporary protection against the resident he fought with.
