Two officers with the San Francisco Police Department spotted what they thought was a stolen car being driven through the city on July 4, 2024. At a red light, one officer rushed out of the patrol car, smashed the driver\u2019s-side window and pulled the driver to the ground.<\/p>\n
One officer then pepper-sprayed the driver in the face as another put him in handcuffs. <\/p>\n
But the officers had entered the wrong license plate into their computer and didn\u2019t realize their mistake until after the driver, Matthew Ludwig, was in handcuffs, urging them to call an ambulance because he couldn\u2019t breathe, according to an investigation by the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability. <\/p>\n
The civilian oversight group said Monday it found that the officers used unnecessary force and violated police policies in the violent arrest. <\/p>\n
\u201cNothing justifies the amount of violence that SFPD officers used on Mr. Ludwig, especially when it stemmed from their own mistake,\u201d said Brian Cox, head of the San Francisco public defender\u2019s office Integrity Unit. \u201cThis case shows how easily police can wrongfully target someone, unnecessarily escalate an encounter, and take away that person\u2019s freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the watchdog group, officers sought charges against Ludwig even after they realized the mistake, booking him on charges of reckless driving and resisting arrest. The charges were pending until Ludwig died in an apparent suicide last year, according to authorities.<\/p>\n
According to the oversight group, the incident occurred at about 11:30 p.m. when officers spotted Ludwig\u2019s car and entered the wrong plate. They followed Ludwig along O\u2019Farrell Street and, at a red light, police body camera footage of the arrest shows<\/a> one officer violently remove Ludwig from his car. <\/p>\n \u201cHands behind your back,\u201d one officer is heard saying as he holds Ludwig\u2019s right arm. <\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t even doing nothing,\u201d Ludwig is heard saying. <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re about to get sprayed,\u201d the officer responds. <\/p>\n Body camera video shows the officer spraying Ludwig at point-blank range. The video later shows an officer pouring water on Ludwig\u2019s face while he lies on the sidewalk in handcuffs. <\/p>\n \u201cCan\u2019t breathe,\u201d Ludwig is heard saying as officers tell him an ambulance is on the way. \u201cI can\u2019t breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n The San Francisco district attorney\u2019s office filed charges against Ludwig based on the officers\u2019 claims, according to the watchdog group, and refused to drop the case until Ludwig died. The Integrity Unit of the San Francisco public defender\u2019s office filed a complaint on his behalf in May 2025. <\/p>\n The watchdog group said that, after his arrest, Ludwig lost his car because it was impounded by police and he was unable to pay the impound fee. <\/p>\n Ludwig still was facing charges on Sept. 11 when he was found dead <\/a>in a park near a pavilion in Rowan County<\/a>, Ky., according to the county coroner\u2019s office. Local police said they believed his death was a suicide<\/a>. <\/p>\n The accountability group is charged with investigating complaints against officers and reports to the San Francisco Police Commission. <\/p>\n The San Francisco Police Department declined to comment on the group\u2019s findings \u201cdue to pending litigation.\u201d The department referred questions to the city attorney\u2019s office; a spokesperson said the city had not been served with a lawsuit on the incident and declined to comment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe officers involved in this have no idea the harm that their actions caused,\u201d said Deputy Public Defender Brandon Coleman, who represented Ludwig in the criminal case, in a statement. \u201cHe told me that he felt like this world lacked compassion for human life and that he had never been given a fair chance in life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two officers with the San Francisco Police Department spotted what they thought was a stolen car being driven…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-429453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}