Kevin Epps, Documentary Filmmaker, Released After Arrest

UPDATE: San Francisco filmmaker Kevin Epps will not be charged in the fatal shooting of a man in his Glen Park home. The district attorney’s office tells KQED “There is insufficient evidence to charge the case at this time. The case remains under investigation.”

A video was posted to Epps’ Instagram feed Wednesday morning, tagged God is great #freshout , let me live. Blacklivesmatter#kevinepps I love my kids #kamaridakid @musicallytied. In the video, Epps can be heard to say “Man, it’s good to be out. This is a blessing.”

San Francisco police arrested Epps in connection with a fatal shooting in the Glen Park neighborhood Monday afternoon.

Paramedics who responded to the scene declared the victim, a man in his 40s, dead by gunshot. Neither the SFPD nor the Coroner’s office has identified the man, but the victim’s son, Marcus Polk, Jr, told NBC Bay Area it was his dad and that the two men, Polk, Sr. and Epps, argued before the shooting.  CBS reported Epps is married to the woman Marcus Polk, Sr, used to be married to.

While the details of what happened Monday are still unclear, friends of Epps have been tweeting in sympathy.

Prayers up☝ for the brother @kevinepps and his family ????????

— Khalid A.White, Ed.D (@brother_white) October 25, 2016

Epps rose to fame in 2003 after producing and directing the documentary Straight Outta Hunters Point.  The critically acclaimed film focused on the gang life and violence in one of San Francisco’s roughest neighborhoods. He followed it in 2014 with Straight Outta Hunters Point 2.

Over the years, Epps became a community activist focused on the African-American experience in the San Francisco Bay Area. His other films include Rap Dreams and The Black Rock AKA Black Alcatraz.

Epps remains best known as an ambassador for the neighborhood he grew up in. In a 2012 interview with SF Weekly, Epps said, “I was able to showcase the film at all these different film festivals and people that would never know about Bayview-Hunters Point could get a view of it.”

Rudy Corpuz, Jr, heads the violence prevention program United Playaz, where Epps recently hosted a workshop for teens on entrepreneurship. “Everything he talked about was about growth,” Corpuz says. “It was about development. It was about building your spirit.”

Corpuz adds he knows Epps to be the kind of guy who would neutralize heated situations, not escalate them. But with so few details available, Corpuz can only wait to find out what really happened.