I-Team talks with homeless man at center of San Leandro police 'dumping' controversy
SAN LEANDRO, Calif. (KGO) -- Shaquille Coleman told ABC7 Eyewitness I-Team's Dan Noyes, "It's hard to talk about. It's hard to even grasp the situation because I didn't think nothing like that would happen to me."
We tracked down the homeless man at the center of controversy. He committed no crime, but San Leandro police violently detained him and dumped him seven miles away in Oakland.
There's also a new fallout from that exclusive report centered around the bodycam video obtained by the I-Team. Activists are targeting the lieutenant from that video. She approved Shaquille Coleman getting dumped seven miles away, even laughed about it. Now, she's facing calls to be fired.
VIDEO: San Leandro officers 'dump' homeless man in Oakland; I-Team questions PD supervisor
From the day we obtained this body-worn camera video, the I-Team has been looking for Shaquille Coleman. San Leandro police handcuffed the 33-year-old homeless man in December 2024, pushed and pulled him into a patrol car, ripping out his braids, drove him seven miles into Oakland and dumped him in the night - even though he had committed no crime.
Officer Suzanne Mann told him after the drive to Oakland, "All right, sir. You can grab your stuff and take off, man."
The owner of San Francisco's Tenderloin Deli saw the I-Team report and set up a meeting for us with Shaquille Coleman.
Dan Noyes: "How'd this come about, J.J.?"
J.J. SMITH: "Oh, I told you I always see him in the neighborhood, I know him. We talk all the time."
Coleman is now living on the streets of the Tenderloin. He lost an eye in a shooting a few years ago, and when we met, he was not in good shape.
Shaquille Coleman: "The thing is I got stabbed like two nights ago."
Noyes: "On your arm? Damn, still bleeding, huh?"
Coleman: "Sixty-three stitches, yup."
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He was surprised to hear that we obtained the bodycam video of his incident and wanted to see our story, but after just a few seconds, the tears came. It was too much to bear.
"I can't watch this, bro," Coleman said.
Coleman asked for a day to compose himself and meet again.
"However we go forward from here, that's all that matters. I don't want to speak on the past. This s**t is even too hard to look at. I don't want to talk about it. It's just making me depressed, bruh."
Coleman told us he would like to file a lawsuit over how police mistreated him, and that he'd like to discuss it further.
"I do have a lot to say. So, tomorrow or whenever you're ready, I'll be ready. I got a lot to say."
We returned the next day at the time we set, but he didn't show up. A crowd of people spoke in support of Shaquille Coleman at last night's BART Police Civilian Review Board.
Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti-Police Terror Project said, "I'm going to guess you all are sitting in these seats, because those are not the kinds of cops that you want on our streets."
They are targeting the San Leandro police lieutenant who was there, overseeing the treatment of Shaquille Coleman that night. Antwinette Turner approved the decision to dump him in Oakland away from any BART station.
Antwinette Turner, San Leandro police lieutenant: "Why not the BART station?"
Suzanne Mann: "Because then he'd just come back."
Turner: "Right, get on that s**t and go."
Mann: "No, he's just going to come back and be a problem, lieutenant. (laughter)."
Turner: "I just want this dude to get out of here."
Mann: "I will get him out of here and there's no BART station, it's going to take him awhile to get back from over there."
Antwinette Turner is now the BART Police Deputy Chief in charge of Progressive Policing and Community Engagement. Some of the speakers last night focused on her smiling during the incident while discussing how to handle Shaquille Coleman.
Robert Bowden from All of Us or None said, "And the lieutenant thought it was funny. She laughing while this man is being violated and disrespected. Is she getting paid my hard earned tax money to laugh while she playing games and laughing at this man getting violated, ain't did nothing?"
VIDEO: NAACP responds to ABC7 I-Team's report on homeless man 'dumped' in Oakland by San Leandro PD
After the meeting, the I-Team's Dan Noyes approached BART Police Chief Kevin Franklin. He defended hiring Antwinette Turner as head of progressive policing.
"And I have confidence that she is able to lead and grow our progressive police and community engagement bureau," he said.
Franklin told us he was aware of the Shaquille Coleman incident, it was part of Turner's background check, but that he never saw the bodycam video.
Noyes: "So you knew about that incident?"
Kevin Franklin: "Yes, sir."
Noyes: "Had you seen the bodycam video?"
Franklin: "No, I haven't."
Noyes: "Was there anything on the body cam video that concerned you?"
Franklin: "I'm not going to discuss the San Leandro investigation because that is their investigation. But we did conduct a thorough background investigation."
Noyes: "Yeah, without seeing the bodycam video, though, you didn't see the bodycam video. How was that that thorough? (mic drops to floor) How was that thorough?"
The BART police board decided to put this issue on their agenda for next month. We also called and emailed Antwinette Turner and did not hear back.
Take a look at more stories by the ABC7 News I-Team.
