On May 13, 1998, my friend, Sheila Detoy was shot and killed by Officer
Greg Breslin of the SFPD. She was only 17 years old when Officer
Breslin's bullet tore through her neck, causing her to bleed out. It
what was called "a stakeout gone awry." Was she armed? No! Did the SFPD
even know who she was? No! Undercover officers were trying
to apprehend Ramondo Cox for failure to appear on a drug warrant. Cox
climbed into the back passenger seat of the car in which Sheila Detoy
was also a passenger. When the car attempted to leave Cox's residence,
Officer Breslin, dressed in plainclothes, fired into the car without
provocation. Breslin claimed that he was in danger of being
struck by the car. But, both witness testimony and forensic evidence
clearly proved that he was NOT in any danger of being struck by the
car. He claimed that the car was traveling at a speed between 25-30
MPH. Witnesses stated that the car was, in fact, traveling between
3-5MPH out of the horseshoe driveway. There weren't any tire tracks
which would have corroborated Breslin's assertion that the car had been
traveling at an excessive speed. Lt. David Robinson of the SFPD,
the investigating officer in my friend Sheila Detoy's case, immediately
told the media, "She was a victim, but she was no innocent victim. She
was trying to live the hip-hop lifestyle." It was clear from the
beginning that Sheila's case was biased. Where were the officers while
Lt. Robinson made an immediate claim that this shooting was justified?
According to SFPD policy, the officers involved in a shooting are to be
sequestered until they each have been questioned separately by the
investigating officer in the case (Lt. David Robinson). But Breslin and
the others present at the time of her killing went to the Police
Officers Association headquarters to seek legal counsel before they
were ever questioned. They weren't questioned until 7 hours after
Officer Breslin had killed Sheila Detoy. The news soon spread all over
the city. The media labeled Sheila Detoy as a "good girl gone bad"
while family and friends were still in the process of finding out that
she had been killed. The media wanted to find out what led her astray
without ever questioning why Officer Breslin had fired in the first
place. [more]
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