Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang -- You're Dead

Two-plus months after police shot Idriss Stelley 20 times, they still won't release their reports on the death

A A A Comments By Matt Smith Wednesday, Aug 29 2001

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Just weeks prior to the Stelley shooting, 37 San Francisco police officers graduated from an intensive, 40-hour training program on dealing with the mentally ill. The program was assembled after a five-year struggle between San Francisco mental health advocates and the SFPD. Two years ago, Supervisor Tom Ammiano joined the fray.

"For two years, we did the dicking around with the Police Department, holding meetings and all that. There was some resistance from the police. ... We stuck to our guns on it, no pun intended," Ammiano says. In late September or early October, Ammiano says, he will hold a hearing on the Stelley shooting. He will discuss the possibility of increasing funding for the police training seminars.

Irizarry and Stelley.

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This would be a fitting legacy for Idriss Stelley.

"What sticks with me is when I saw his face -- I only saw his face; he was covered with plastic -- at the coroner's office he had a beautiful smile, an incredible smile," says Irizarry, sitting in her light-bathed Bayview living room. "And I was wondering if he had that smile because it was the end of his emotional suffering. Or, since Idriss was always a social activist -- intensely preoccupied by social justice, and really involved -- did he think, "Well, I'm gone; maybe something good is going to come from this'?"

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