Cops Slam Man To Ground, Punch And Kick Him While Kneeling On His Head And Neck

Police body-camera footage shows officers slamming a 33-year-old man to the ground, punching and kicking him, and kneeling on his head and neck during an arrest on August 17, 2025.

Kevon Gibson had been staying in an apartment building on Sixth Street to help care for a friend when a resident accused him of making threats. According to the Public Defender’s Office, the resident had made racist and violent threats against Gibson before officers arrived.

Three officers initially taunted Gibson’s friend through her apartment door before discovering that Gibson was in an elevator down the hall. Although officers told him he was not under arrest and would not be pulled from the elevator, two grabbed his wrist and began pulling him out.

Officers then slammed Gibson to the ground, punched him repeatedly in the head, kicked him, pulled his hair and knelt on his head and neck. Gibson repeatedly pleaded with them to stop and said he could not breathe. He was hospitalized in intensive care for several days before being transferred to jail.

The officers later claimed Gibson had assaulted them, but body-camera and surveillance footage contradicted their accounts, according to the Public Defender’s Office. A jury acquitted Gibson of all three felony resisting-arrest charges but convicted him of misdemeanor resisting arrest and unlawful gun possession. Gibson plans to appeal the gun conviction.

The Public Defender’s Office accused prosecutors of trying to withhold evidence and limit what jurors could hear from the body-camera footage. It plans to file a complaint with the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability and seek the officers’ decertification.