Nearly a week after San Francisco police reopened a 2023 case involving the death of a Chinese immigrant, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said the department would release video footage of the incident “after the investigation is complete and we’ve determined it will not interfere with the investigation or potential prosecution.”
Yanfang Wu, a 63-year-old woman, was pushed on a sidewalk in the Bayview neighborhood last July and later died from her injuries. The SFPD ruled the incident an accident, and no arrests were made.
On Sunday, Mayor London Breed called for the release of the video on Facebook, following a meeting Saturday with community leaders from San Francisco’s Asian Pacific Islander community to commemorate the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings, in which six women of Asian descent died.
“Right now law enforcement is investigating and we can’t compromise that criminal investigation or prosecution in any way,” Breed wrote. “Once it’s determined releasing the video won’t do that, it should be released.”
In posts to X on Sunday, Chief Scott called the death of Yanfang Wu “a tragedy” and echoed the mayor’s position that the department takes cases involving violence against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community “very seriously.”
“Our investigators are working diligently on the case which is an open and active investigation,” Scott wrote. “In all cases, we look for evidence of motivation—including possible hate crimes.”
The chief added that the SFPD would will release video of the incident after the investigation is complete, as requested by the mayor, once it was certain not to interfere with the probe or prosecution.
