California AG and SF DA Decline Charges in Three Fatal SFPD Shootings

Michael Macfhionghain, 57, and Rafael Mendoza, 49, were shot and killed after officers responded to a 911 call at the intersection of Mariposa and Owens, and the California Department of Justice announced it will not criminally charge the officers involved. The DOJ statement, attributed to Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office and republished by Bay City News Service and the Mercury News on March 5, 2026, concluded: "There is insufficient evidence to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the officers involved acted without the intent to defend themselves or others from what they reasonably believed to be the imminent risk of death or serious bodily injury. Therefore, there is insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution of the officers and no further action will be taken in this case."

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón separately announced his office will not file criminal charges in two other fatal SFPD shootings that helped prompt the resignation of former Police Chief Greg Suhr and broad department reform efforts. Gascón described those shootings — the deaths of Mario Woods and Luis Góngora — as "disturbing" and "unnecessary," according to a KQED report summarizing the district attorney’s review and interview comments.

The May 9, 2022 Mariposa and Owens encounter began with a 911 call; officers arriving on scene found two men fighting, Bay City News Service reported. Both men were shot and killed. A Facebook repost of the Mercury News headline claimed "Four officers shot at the two men," a social-media detail that is recorded in the public record but not corroborated elsewhere in the supplied reporting. The Mercury News/Bay City News Service piece did not list the names or number of officers who fired; the DOJ statement focused on the legal standard for prosecution.

The DA’s report on the Luis Góngora shooting, as described by KQED, includes granular tactical details: Officer Mellone broadcast on the radio that the suspect "just dropped the knife," and investigators reported Góngora almost immediately picked it back up. Surveillance video and the report show roughly 22 seconds elapsed between officers’ initial contact and the gunshots that killed Góngora, though the video captured the officers and not Góngora because he was outside the camera frame. Mellone deployed an impact weapon and fired four beanbag rounds; the report quotes him saying, "Officer Mellone said he was stunned by how ineffective the beanbags were."

An internal San Francisco District Attorney excerpt on a separate case recorded more recent review processes. The July 26, 2024 officer-involved shooting of Ryant Bluford, 41, in Bayview–Hunter's Point involved Community Violence Reduction Team plainclothes officers Jones, Brophy and Viola, with Officers Van Zandt and Radin identified as the two officers who fired. That excerpt notes officers had badges and weapons exposed, activated body-worn cameras, and that investigators reviewed BWC, civilian phone and surveillance footage; Bluford’s file lists him at approximately 6 feet 2 inches and 202 pounds with prior San Francisco arrests from 2004 to 2022.

Statewide context underscores how rare criminal prosecutions of on-duty killings remain. CalMatters reported that five officers in California have been criminally charged for on-duty deaths, with two prosecutions tied to shootings before a law that took effect Jan. 1, 2020, and that in the 15 years before 2020 only six officers were criminally charged, according to a Bowling Green State University criminal justice professor. CalMatters also noted the January 2022 guilty plea of former San Diego Deputy Aaron Russell to voluntary manslaughter in the killing of Nicholas Bils, with a one-year jail sentence and three years probation, and quoted grieving family member Addie Kitchen: "I want people to understand that our children are important to us and that we want justice. We want the officers to be held accountable."

The DOJ’s March 5, 2026 decision closes the criminal-prosecution track for the Mariposa and Owens shootings under the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard described by Bonta’s office, while Gascón’s declinations in the Woods and Góngora cases leave outstanding policy and oversight questions that city officials, victims’ families and reform advocates will continue to press. Reported timelines, weapons used and witness accounts in the Góngora and Bluford reviews remain part of the public prosecutorial record as local officials consider administrative and policy responses.