SF District Attorney's Office had joined the Police Department to rule that the Wu case was an accidental death in 2023

(SAN FRANCISCO) After leaders of the Asian Justice Movement (AJM) demanded in person to city leaders on March 16 the release of the video related to Yanfang Wu death case in July 2023, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Police Chief William Scott agreed to make the video public only after their second-round of the investigation on the case is over.

Latest information also indicated that the District Attorney's office was part of the investigation in July 2023 to conclude that the death of 63-year-old Chinese immigrant woman Wu was an accident. Thea Hopkins, 43, an African American woman and person of interest in the case, was released after she was detained by police officers and interviewed by the Homicide Detail investigators.

Sources told Wind Newspaper that an Assistant District Attorney joined Homicide Detail investigators in the interview with Hopkins. Both the police investigators and the prosecutor justified the statement of Hopkins that she was running to catch a T-Line light rail train on 3rd Street and fell onto Wu by accident causing Wu to fall and die in the incident.

The District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment by press time.

Eight months ago, Wind Newspaper also sent an inquiry to the District Attorney's Office requesting for comments on the Wu case in July 2023. The District Attorney's Office did not respond to the request until July 19, 2023 when the article was published in Wind Newspaper.

"As of today, July 19, 2023, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) did not make an arrest in this case. The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office’s (SFDA) jurisdiction begins when the SFPD submits a case to us for charging. The SFPD has not submitted a case to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office for charging," wrote Randy Quezada, Communication Director of the SFDA.

Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin also learned of the involvement of the SFDA in the investigation of the Wu case in 2023. Peskin planned to introduce a resolution at March 19's board meeting and urged the SFDA as well as SFPD to release police investigation reports, witness accounts, and video information related to the death of Wu on July 3, 2023.

"Per standard homicide investigation procedure, the SFPD Homicide Detail Unit assigned to the case interviewed witnesses, reviewed video footage of the incident, and interviewed a detained person of interest, but ultimately determined, with the participation of the assigned Assistant District Attorney (ADA), not to pursue an arrest or file charges," Peskin said prior to the introduction of his resolution at the board meeting.

On August 21, 2023, the SFPD issued a press release to conclude that the incident in which Wu died from the fall to the ground had been deemed an accidental death and the case was closed.

"The SFPD released a press statement after determining in consultation with the District Attorney’s Office that Mrs. Wu’s death was actually an 'accidental death'," said Peskin. "Given the 'accidental death' determination, it is unclear what steps were taken by the Homicide Detail Unit and ADA to ensure that the suspect was not released directly back into the population without a thorough psychological and health evaluation and appropriate treatment."

Peskin also was concerned that because Wu’s death was ruled as an “accidental death”, her husband, Rongan Liang, was not eligible for violent crime victim compensation and other services. Ultimately Liang made the decision to move back to China after the loss of his wife.

Wu was an immigrant from China to San Francisco for about 10 years when she died. She used to live in the Richmond District with her 71-year-old husband before they relocated to the Bayview neighborhood in June 2023 due to a fire. Liang has retired and would walk for 9 blocks every evening to pick up her wife from work at a restaurant in the Sunset District.

At around 6:30pm on July 3, 2023, Liang walked to the 3rd Street bus stop as usual to pick up his wife. Wu already got off the bus and walked on the 6000 block of 3rd Street. Liang was about half block away walking towards Wu. He saw Wu fall on the ground by the push of an African American woman. Wu died two days later in the hospital on July 5.

The woman who allegedly pushed Wu to the ground was identified by the DA Office as 43-year-old Thea Hopkins on March 7, 2024 as the defendant in the March 4 morning attack on another elderly Chinese immigrant woman victim in the Bayview neighborhood which was only three blocks away from the location where Wu was killed.

Hopkins was the same attacker in both cases. The DA Office did not disclose the connection between the Wu case and the latest case of a 71-year-old victim who was attacked from behind and passed out on the 1000 block of Gilman Street on March 4.

Asian Justice Movement is a newly-emerged national Asian coalition formed by community leaders and new Asian groups which were mostly founded since the pandemic in 2020 focusing on the rising anti-Asian hate and violent incidents around the country.

A number of the core members and leaders of the Asian Justice Movement are based in San Francisco. AJM was the only Asian organization after Wu died from injuries in 2023 to discuss the case with SFPD and demand the release of the video related to the case.

"Members of AJM joined a community meeting on July 17, 2023 with an Acting Commander from SFPD, and asked for release of the video. The Acting Commander refused, and also did not share any additional substantive information," according to AJM.

In March 2024, when leaders of the AJM learned about the connection between two cases from news media, they issued a public statement to demand SFPD reopen an investigation on the Wu case and release the video that they requested in 2023.

AJM held an event on March 16 to commemorate the 3rd anniversary of the Atlanta spa shooting which occurred on March 16, 2021 where eight people were killed and one victim was wounded by a 21-year-old white man at two Asian spas and a massage parlor in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. Six victims who died in the shooting were Asian women.

Mayor Breed, Police Chief Scott and DA Jenkins were invited to the AJM event in Japantown. AJM leaders demanded all of them in person to release the video of the Wu case.

Hudson Liao, founder of the Asians Are Strong and organizer of AJM, spoke on the stage to make the demand, while Breed, Scott and Jenkins sat on the first row in the audience at the event.

"Our people should be able to walk down the streets of San Francisco in peace! Our Asian seniors should not have to worry about being killed in an ‘accident’ or murdered because someone was having a ‘bad day.’ Ms. Wu’s husband never believed it was an accident. He was only half a block away when he saw his wife being shoved to the ground," said Liao.

"We demand that the SFPD release the video immediately. We want to know why you concluded this was an accident when the husband of the deceased, an eyewitness, said it was not. We want to know why you didn’t ask anyone else besides the suspect about the incident. We want to know why you did the bare minimum to investigate this heinous crime," Liao added.

Liao also challenged Breed for her public remarks of anti-Asian hate crimes down by 90%. "There are a lot fewer hate crimes if you keep classifying them as ‘accidents'," Liao said.

"This is not the San Francisco I was born and raised in. And it will not be the San

Francisco I leave behind," Liao continued. "The community has done its part. We’ve held protests, rallies, marches, and town halls demanding the city to protect our community. We’ve started patrolling Chinatowns and escorting our Asian seniors just so they can go grocery shopping. We’ve even started teaching self-defense classes to Asian elders so that they can feel a little safer. But we can't do this alone. We need our electeds and city officials to step up and do something."

The day after the AJM event, Breed issued a statement on her facebook and wrote, " Yesterday, I had the opportunity to join many in our API community in commemorating the 3rd anniversary of the Atlanta spa shootings. We listened and we helped each other heal, and we will continue to uplift the voices of our API community."

"Thank you to the many community leaders for talking to me about their plea to transparency in the investigation of the death of Ms. Yanfang Wu," Breed stated. "I believe in transparency and stand with the API community for justice for all victims and survivors of hate incidents."

"As soon as possible, I want the video released — being victim-centered means the surviving family members should absolutely first get notification so there’s no surprise and we don’t retraumatize them," Breed wrote. "Right now law enforcement is investigating and we can’t compromise that criminal investigation or prosecution in any way. Once it’s determined releasing the video won’t do that, it should be released."

Police Chief Scott subsequently following Breed released a statement via social media X and agreed to the release of the video only after the second-round of the investigation has been completed.

"The SFPD does not tolerate violence against our AAPI community and we take these cases very seriously. The death of Yanfang Wu is a tragedy. Our investigators are working diligently on the case which is an open and active investigation," Scott wrote.

"In all cases, we look for evidence of motivation - including possible hate crimes. The SFPD will release the video in this case, as Mayor Breed requested after the investigation is complete and we've determined it will not interfere with the investigation or potential prosecution."

Liao could not agree with Breed and Scott to wait for the investigation to end to see the video. "We don't have confidence. What are you hiding? Did you make a mistake last year?" Liao responded to Breed and Scott's statements.

SFPD had closed the investigation on Wu case in 2023. Liao said the video should be released as soon as possible. "It is their common practice to delay the cases and let the public interest die down," Liao said he echoed writer Helen Zia's comment at the AJM event, "Justice delayed is justice denied".