35 arrested in protest over fatal police shooting

SAN FRANCISCO – A march through San Francisco protesting the fatal police shooting of a 19-year-old parolee disrupted transit service as at least one protester dropped a smoke bomb in a light-rail train station and officers say another threw a hammer at a police station window but did not cause damage.

San Francisco police told KTVU-TV on Tuesday they arrested about 35 protesters who would be cited for failure to disperse after an unlawful assembly was declared. One arrest was made in connection to a protester attempting to take a camera from a local television crew, Officer Albie Esparza told the San Francisco Chronicle.

The march began moving through the Mission and Castro districts around 6 p.m., and it came the same day investigators said tests found gun residue on 19-year-old Kenneth Harding's hand, indicating he fired the first shot at officers Saturday.

Police Chief Greg Suhr said the Seattle man fired the first shot at the officers, who shot back about nine times. Harding was pronounced dead after the chase in the Bayview neighborhood that began when officers approached him for not paying his fare on a light-rail train.

Harding was on parole for promoting prostitution in Washington state and was a person of interest in a fatal shooting in Seattle last week, authorities said.

During the protest Tuesday, some marchers carried a banner reading "They can't shoot us all."

The group arrived at a Muni light rail station, where they overturned garbage cans and attempted to break ticket machines, KTVU-TV reported. Video footage showed a protester throwing a smoke bomb.

Esparza tells the news station that police declared the gathering of about 150 protesters an unlawful assembly around 7:45 p.m.

After the group left the light rail station, they moved toward the Mission Police Station, where they threw a hammer toward a window.

The Chronicle reports officers were not hit.