Prosecutors won't file charges in 2 fatal San Francisco police shootings

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco's district attorney said Friday that three police officers who fatally shot two suspects in separate incidents won't face criminal charges.

District Attorney George Gascon said the officers legally fired their weapons in self-defense.

The district attorney's office recently received funding to create a new police shooting review unit to help clear a backlog of investigations that dates back to 2014. The office still has eight open cases.

Two of the officers cleared of criminal wrongdoing Friday fatally shot Matthew Hoffman, 32, who left behind a suicide note in 2015.

In the days before the shooting, Hoffman sent text messages asking an acquaintance how police would react to him pointing a replica gun at officers.

Hoffman was shot after he became confrontational with an officer who ordered him to leave a restricted police station parking lot. Two officers shot Hoffman when he pulled a pellet gun that looked like a real handgun from his waistband.

"You did nothing wrong," Hoffman wrote to police in a suicide note found on his phone. "You ended the life of a man who was too much of a coward to do it himself."

Another officer was cleared of criminal wrongdoing for fatally shooting car burglary suspect Oshee Evans.

The district attorney said an officer was approaching the car where Evans was sitting to arrest him on suspicion of breaking into cars.

The district attorney said Evans pointed a gun at the officer as he approached and the officer fired.

A judge previously dismissed a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Evans' family. Evans was 26.