The San Francisco Archdiocese will hold a prayer service on Wednesday morning for Hector Salvador, a 26-year-old San Francisco resident, who was shot at 16th and Hoff streets at 2:10 a.m. on Sunday, December 6. After reportedly suffering a single gunshot to the torso, Salvador was transported to a hospital, where he died.
Police spokesperson Grace Gatpandan said that the incident involved a “group of people yelling at each other in a verbal argument” and said that “a shot was heard” after that. The police found Salvador on the sidewalk of Hoff Street, an alley connecting 16th and 17th streets. No further details have been released by police.
A resident in a building across the street from the scene, who didn’t want to be named, said loud fights often break out in the area after bars close. She said one such fight woke her up on Saturday night (Sunday morning) and that she heard police cars drive by and give a quick blare from their sirens before moving on. That seemed to disperse the fight, but within about ten minutes she heard gunfire.
“Right after that I heard just one single gunshot, and then a few people like, ‘Ahhh, oh my god’ and then everybody running out of the area,” the resident said. “I heard a guy, he said something to the extent of, ‘Come on, let’s go,’ and I heard a car peeling out.”
After the police arrived, the resident recorded a video:
A memorial with dozens of empty glass bottles, candles, and baseball caps was set up on the Hoff Street sidewalk by Sunday evening, with a picture of Salvador affixed to a tree. Mourners have continued to congregate in small groups to remember Salvador, sitting all night at the spot where Salvador died to hold vigil, but none wished to comment on his death.
The resident said another fight broke out at one of these memorial gatherings on Sunday night, but was dispersed without police intervention.
“No one calls the police in that neighborhood,” she said. “Unless it’s something real serious I think everybody just kinda minds their own business.”
She also said there has been no increase in police presence in the area since the incident. Police say that officers have been canvassing the area and seeking out video surveillance footage. Both the Wells Fargo and Dunleavy Plaza, an apartment complex, have visible security cameras overlooking the alley.
This is the 46th homicide in San Francisco this year. It is also the fourth gun-related death in the Mission this year, though the first in which an police officer was not the shooter. The first death, in January, was later suspected to be a suicide. The second was the death of Amilcar Perez Lopez in February, and the third the shooting of a suspect at St. Luke’s Hospital last month.
The archdiocese of San Francisco will hold a prayer service at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, December 9 at Hoff and 16th streets and requests donations on behalf of Salvador’s family to go toward funeral expenses.
Was there also a shooting in front of Brunos. See flower and candles there.
We haven’t gotten any reports of a shooting there recently, but I think Dec. 7 was the anniversary of the shooting of Camilo Senchyna-Beltran, an EMT worker who was killed last year.
You can read that story here.