After receiving a torrent of emails and calls from residents following a 4/20 shooting in Dolores Park, the San Francisco Police Department’s Mission Station has increased its late afternoon and night patrol watches around the perimeter of Dolores Park.
It has also committed to a fixed presence in the park on the next 4/20, the Mission Station captains announced at a virtual community meeting Tuesday.
The increased patrols began on Monday.
The shooting on April 20 occurred shortly before 7 p.m. near the bridge on the west side of the park, where a large crowd had gathered to enjoy the annual day of indulgence.
No shooting victims were found when police responded after ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection technology, picked up some audible shots, according to Captain Thomas Harvey, who will soon take over Mission Station after Captain McEachern retires at the end of the month.
To date, no one has been arrested and charged. Police located seven shell casings near the footbridge Thursday, and detained three individuals nearby who were soon released, because “there was not anything to support having them arrested as far as evidence, witness testimony or contraband,” said Captain Harvey.
Multiple residences were struck with gunfire, and distraught residents inundated Mission Station with emails of concerns.
As a result, the police plan to step up their presence at next year’s 4/20 event by deploying more uniformed officers in crowded areas such as Dolores Park. “We haven’t had a shooting like this in quite a while. It’s a bit of an anomaly,” Captain Gavin McEachern said at the meeting. “It’s very disturbing. One shooting is too many.”
The seven casings will be submitted for DNA analysis and forensic testing, in the hope of finding matching bullets or casing fragments registered in the system.
According to footage obtained from security cameras in Dolores Park, “There were two groups of people that were seemingly having a potential conflict, and we know what the outcome was,” said Captain Harvey, whose station is attempting to obtain more footage from other sources to shed light on the incident.
Mission Station is also in active communication with the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department regarding the shooting in Dolores Park. The latter regularly patrols the larger parks.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the San Francisco Police Department at 415-575-4444.
This story is breaking, and may be updated if more details are provided.
Crime is trauma and the county offers different services, which can be found here. Victims of violent crime can also contact the Trauma Recovery Center at UCSF.
We live on 20th Street next to Dolores Park. We received two bullets into our apartment house wall and window frame that night. One narrowly missed shattering the window where one of our guests was looking out. However, the shooting we experienced occurred at around 9:03 pm, not 7:00 pm as stated in the article. The time of 7:00 pm is incorrect.
Oh how I remember the same community of residents, “Defund, Abolish SFPD.” Now it’s torrents of calls and e-mails for more SFPD.
FACTS!!
“same community of residents(?)” What are you referring to? This is nonsense.