Homeless man dies after police shooting in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A homeless man was shot and killed by San Francisco police in the Mission District on Thursday morning. And now, there are differing accounts as to what happened.

RELATED: SF Police Officers Association renews call to arm cops with Tasers

The homeless man was shot on the 400 block of Shotwell by officers responding to a call from a homeless outreach team of a man with a knife.

"The knife had a 10 to 12 inch blade," said Police Chief Greg Suhr.

Police said they shot bean bags at the man but that he kept charging. Suhr says two officers, one of them a sergeant, fired.

"We have it appears, four expended casings from the bean bag gun and seven casings," he said.

Seven bullet casings.

The man was rushed to the hospital where he later died.

"All he did was play with his soccer ball," said Grant.

Stephanie Grant and John Visor knew the man as Jose. They were outside their tent about 10 yards away when officers arrived. They say they saw everything.

"The knife was on his hip the whole time," said Visor. "He didn't have no knife in his hand when the officers were around."

Visor says he saw bean bags hitting Jose.

"He was going in circles and that's when the sergeant pulled his gun out and fired at him," he said.

The couple says the knife was tucked in his belt.

"He fell and that's when the knife fell out when he hit the ground," said Visor.

The irony of the shooting is that it came a day after police commissioners met to discuss arming officers with Tasers.