Updated Monday, Jan. 9:

A late-night shooting of four people left one man dead early Friday morning — on the same block as the Mission police station, according to authorities. 

Investigators identified 21-year-old Christopher Aguilar Rojas as the suspect in the shooting and have asked the public’s help in locating him. “Rojas is considered armed and dangerous,” said a statement from the SFPD on Saturday evening after the shooting.

Booking photo of Christopher Aguilar Rojas, the SFPD’s primary suspect in a shooting of four people in the Mission District.

Police didn’t have to go far when they received reports of a shooting at 1:53 a.m. on the 600 block of Valencia Street near 17th Street, the site of Mission Station. Two male and two female victims had been shot and were transported to the hospital, according to a statement from the SFPD. 

Both men had life-threatening injuries, but one is expected to survive. The other man, age 28, was pronounced dead at the hospital. 

District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen wrote on Twitter Friday afternoon that a “recent uptick in shootings in the Mission District have been shocking and unsettling.” 

Mission Station’s Captain Gavin McEachern, however, disputed this claim.

“In actuality we have seen a reduction in the number of incidents compared to 2021,” McEachern told Mission Local. “All shootings [are] down 20 percent compared to last year.” Total shooting incidents “where someone has been actually shot,” McEachern said, are down 37 percent from last year.

Homicides, according to the SFPD’s Crime Dashboard, were unchanged between 2021 and 2022.

That said, McEachern said that he has “never seen so many offenders with firearms, including burglary and auto burglary suspects,” but said that firearm seizures by police have increased significantly since last year.

“This is what I know: These incidents have been targeted and involve victims and suspects that don’t live in the district,” Ronen wrote, adding that “most suspects” in shooting cases have been arrested.  

The SFPD Homicide detail is investigating this shooting. Anyone with information regarding the investigation is asked to call the SFPD Tip Line at 1-415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD. You may remain anonymous. 

This is a developing story and may be updated.

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REPORTER. Eleni is our reporter focused on policing in San Francisco. She first moved to the city on a whim nearly 10 years ago, and the Mission has become her home. Follow her on Twitter @miss_elenius.

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10 Comments

  1. Most of the “homeless” campers in The Mission don’t “live in the district”. Perhaps Hilary Ronen needs to chew on that for awhile before flame-throwing suggestions every other month for housing the often violent, nearly always drug-addicted street campers in her district.

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  2. If the SFPD can’t prevent a shooting right in front of their district station, then the SFPD is not going to be preventing much in the way of homicide.

    Best to stop deceiving ourselves and stipulate to the facts as they are, and redirect resources from cops to the DA to fund after the fact investigations.

    Prevention of murder is impossible with these police, deterrence is all we’ve got.

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    1. Prevention of murder is impossible for any police force. But especially a police force that is undermined by people like Ronen.

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      1. HOW? How has any supervisor hurt the cops ability to prevent, capture or charge anyone? You haters need to have facts, not just blame game

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  3. As someone who lives on the block where this happened, I’d be interested in learning more about why people are traveling to the mission to carry out these targeted incidents.

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    1. Traveling to the mission? Lol. I guess you aren’t from here. Mission has been this way for a long time.

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      1. According to Ronen the shooters are not residents of the Mission. Read the article

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