SAN FRANCISCO — A federal court security officer shot and wounded a man who allegedly advanced toward the guard while wielding a knife, an incident that wasn’t publicly revealed until prosecutors recently filed charges against the wounded man, court records show.
The officer fired seven times at 35-year-old Zachary Norman Guyton, hitting him four times, after Guyton allegedly brandished a knife and “advanced” toward the officer. Before the shooting, the officer was attempting to boot him from an area outside the James R. Browning Courthouse in downtown San Francisco. The security officer, contracted through Federal Protective Services, told authorities he feared for his life, according to the criminal complaint against Guyton.
Guyton has been charged with assault on a federal employee. Video of the incident shows him brandishing and walking toward the officer, who backed away while holding his gun, and yelled commands at Guyton. When the officer began to holster his weapon one final time, Guyton began moving quickly toward him, prompting the officer to raise and fire the pistol, prosecutors said.
The incident occurred in the early morning on Jan. 26, before court opened. FPS officers had been told to clear trespassers from the area and Guyton appeared to be loitering around the steps of the appeals courthouse, the complaint says.
Guyton was hospitalized but later discharged, according to court records.
The shooting was not publicly revealed until Feb. 17, when prosecutors filed charges and created a public court file. Neither the FPS nor the justice department ever issued a news release announcing the shooting.
Conflicts between loiterers and FPS officers in downtown San Francisco is hardly unheard of. The guards are told to conduct foot patrols around both the appeals court and adjacent federal building to disburse trespassers, and last year prosecutors charged a man with breaking courthouse windows over a similar altercation, records show.
Violence against the officers is more rare, with one notable exception: In 2020, two followers of the so-called Boogaloo Movement — an anti-government group that mostly existed online — met up in the Bay Area and traveled to Oakland to kill police officers.
They ended up shooting an FPS guard hut outside of Oakland’s federal building, killing Pinole resident and FPS Officer Dave Patrick Underwood and wounding his colleague. Both men, one of whom murdered a Santa Cruz Sheriff’s sergeant and shot several other cops weeks later, were convicted at trial.