SWAT Team uses gas, launchers to lure barricaded robbery suspect on 22nd Street

Sharon Hawley, 52, descended the stairs in her backyard late Saturday night when she noticed a light bulb go out. She peered closer, then froze. There were four officers in SWAT uniforms in the garden, and they were carrying guns. 

She rushed upstairs to wake her husband, and together they observed the scene unfolding below from their bedroom window.  

“Get away from the window! We have a warrant,” the officers yelled to the couple.  

But the warrant wasn’t for Hawley, nor her husband, Dan Mattarozzi, 75. The SWAT Team arrived at 2715 22nd St. near Bryant Street for robbery suspect Raymond Yee, 30, the couple’s across-the-street neighbor of over 21 years. 

The San Francisco Police Department confirmed that they were aiding a San Bruno Police Department investigation on Saturday night, and eight men and two women were detained at the Bryant Street address. Yee was booked into San Mateo County jail on a felony second-degree robbery charge, according to records from the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department. 

At about 10 p.m., at least three police cars, one of which was unmarked, and one “large tactical vehicle” was parked outside of 2715 22nd St., according to a neighbor who requested anonymity. For the next three hours, officers tried to lure Yee out of the unit at 2715 22nd St., where he had allegedly barricaded himself. Every five minutes, a police officer called out to Yee on speaker, “Raymond Yee and associates, come out of the building with your hands up.” 

In addition to the SWAT team, about 10 to 15 officers in riot gear were present. At least one person, not in uniform and wearing a “backward hat,” appeared to be an undercover officer, the neighbor said.

Multiple generations of the Yee family reside in various apartments on the block, according to Mattarozzi. The officers considered each of those properties during the search, asking family members to come outside their houses, to determine which one Raymond was in. 

Hussan Raza, 32, was coming home around midnight when he saw officers had blocked the section of 22nd Street between York and Bryant streets. 

By about 11 p.m., the SWAT Team had fired a launcher and broken one window in the building. Shortly after 11 p.m., the police evacuated the other residents at 2715 22nd St., who appeared unrelated to the case. 

The officers then pointed a “floodlight” into a building on the opposite side of the street. Yee’s relatives were inside, but exited following the officers’ commands. 

“The person on a loudspeaker said, ‘We have just detained your entire family,” the anonymous neighbor said.  

The floodlights illuminated Raza’s home, too. He recalled the officers saying, “We don’t want to escalate this situation any further; however, if you don’t comply, you leave us no choice.”

When Yee failed to come out, the officer then communicated, “We know you’re in there; your father has told us you’re in there. Everyone you’re with, come on out.”

Mattarozzi said Yee’s brother was translating the officers’ demands into Chinese. Most of the family members are first-generation Chinese immigrants, Mattarozzi said. 

Yee and several others had barricaded themselves in the building, according to a source close to the situation. When Yee still didn’t leave, onlookers watched the SWAT Team lift a pole with a camera attached to it to survey inside 2715 22nd St., the anonymous neighbor said. Officers found Yee watching television and ignoring officers’ parent-like demands (“think about what you’re doing, Raymond”), the neighbor added.

Between 12:30 and 1 a.m., the SWAT Team deployed more launchers and broke at least one other window, the anonymous neighbor said. Officers then discussed gas masks. Mission Local is told that the gas was deployed to lure out Yee and avoid a confrontation; the neighbor saw Yee and at least three others exit the building following the gas, and officers detained them.

“It was unnerving,” said Mattarozzi. “You see all these cops with all these weapons, and the first thing you think is: ‘Oh, they’re gonna break the door down then they’re gonna start shooting.’ But it ended peacefully.”

Yee is being held in San Mateo County on $100,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear in court on July 12.