Family wants 2nd autopsy after SFPD academy recruit dies

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A San Francisco Police Department recruit officer died last month after he suffered a medical emergency during a training exercise at the academy. Recruit Officer Jon-Marques Psalms, 30, died in a hospital on August 22, two days after the exercise, according to SFPD.

“Psalms suffered a medical emergency after completing a training exercise … at the Academy. Medical personnel treated him on site before paramedics took him to the hospital,” SFPD officials wrote.

Psalms lived in San Francisco and worked in the tech industry before pursuing his passion to become a law enforcement officer, SFPD officials said.

Now his family is trying to raise enough money to conduct their own independent autopsy to find out why Psalms died.

“My older brother, Jon-Marques Psalms, passed away on August 22nd for reasons that we aren’t fully aware of yet. Jon passed away after participating in a training exercise for the SFPD, San Francisco Police Department. The highly controversial ‘Street Cop Training’ exercise that led to his passing has left our family with more questions than answers, and sadly, the City of San Francisco and the Police Department have not provided us with the clarity and support that we need during this time,” his brother wrote on a GoFundMe page.

The recruit’s cause of death from the first autopsy has not been publicly released. An SFPD spokesperson did not respond Friday to KRON4’s questions about Psalms’ cause of death, nor disclosed what type of training exercise led to his medical emergency.

His family wants to conduct a second autopsy to clear up uncertainty around Psalms’ cause of death, the brother said.

Psalms grew up in Southern California and went to college in Louisiana before moving to the Bay Area to work in tech, SFPD officials said.

Psalms found a sense of purpose in pursuing a law enforcement career and tightly bonded with his fellow recruits in the Class of 286, city officials said.

The recruit’s brother, Malik Psalms, said, “This tragedy has hit his family and friends extremely hard.”

Mayor Daniel Lurie said he spoke to the family in August. The mayor said, “He was so looking forward to graduating with all of them and joining the ranks of the SFPD. Losing a recruit who had committed himself to this police department and to the safety of our community is especially painful.”

The SFPD’s 285th Recruit Class was sworn in on Thursday after completing 33 weeks of training. There were 31 graduating recruit officers, and three served in the US Army, Army National Guard, and US Navy. Following graduation, the newly sworn SFPD officers will begin a 16-week field-training program at district stations.