Marc Child, 37, was fatally shot in his parent’s San Francisco home while chasing after a police officer and his elderly father with a knife.
Dispatch audio and body-worn camera footage from San Francisco Police Officer Eduardo Villanueva released Friday during an Officer-Involved Shooting Town Hall meeting detail the chaotic scene that unfolded on 31st Avenue near Balboa Street in the early hours of June 22.
Roland Child, 84, called dispatchers around 2:39 a.m. but had difficulty describing the scene as the noise of struggling and a dog yelping sounded in the background, dispatch audio revealed.
When police arrived at the Richmond District residence 50 seconds later, Roland Child answered the front door with a wound bleeding from his head, the police body camera footage shows.
Villanueva attempted to engage Child in a second-floor hallway before Child stepped out into the hallway and revealed he had a knife, the footage shows.
“You little b—, I see you running away, huh,” Child can be heard yelling.
As Villanueva told Child’s father to head down the stairs, Child began following them down the stairs and Villanueva shot at him twice, hitting him once in the chest.
Multiple officers can be heard telling Child to show his hands and roll over away from the knife, which had fallen to his side.
“I want to help you, man,” Villanueva yelled as other officers planned a way to give Child medical assistance while protecting themselves.
Just over three minutes after the shooting, officers used a police shield to advance toward Child’s sprawled-out body to administer first aid. Child died of his injuries at General Hospital.
Officers later discovered Child’s 76-year-old mother, Barbara Lai Child, and the family dog dead inside the second-floor bathroom.
Investigators recovered the knife used in the attack and what was described as drugs rolled in a dollar bill inside Child’s room, along with three walking sticks he had allegedly used as weapons. Two ammunition casings were also recovered from outside the home.
When asked during public comment if he could disclose what investigators believe may have led up to Child’s attack on his parents, Chief Bill Scott said he could not reveal any more information other than what was put out in the town hall meeting.
“I can’t at this time disclose prior events, prior contact but encourage everyone to take a look at what we’ve released,” Scott said.
Child was a licensed attorney in California and often spoke openly on his social media accounts about his struggles with mental illness, The Standard previously reported.
Child was previously accused twice of attacking those close to him, according to court records. In October 2019, his then-girlfriend sought a restraining order against him, saying that he punched her in the head at her home in Orange County.
He came back to her home shortly after the attack and refused to leave. During his time in jail, he called her 40 times.
Child’s parents also tried to place a restraining order on him after he attacked both of them in January 2021.
Child’s death was the second fatal shooting by San Francisco police in just over a month. On May 19, a tactical officer shot and killed a 40-year-old man during an extended standoff after the suspect snorted drugs and reached for a handgun. Prior to the two deaths, the department had not had an officer-involved shooting for over a year.
The incident is under investigation by the police department, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, the Department of Police Accountability and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.