Last summer, Carlos Discua, 20, stepped outside of his unit in the Hayes Valley Apartments housing project to attend a birthday-memorial for a young man who had been killed at the complex a year earlier. His mom brought in pupusas for dinner, expecting a family sit-down later that night.
Her son never returned: Discua was shot in the street on June 30, 2022, and died at the hospital, five days shy of his 21st birthday. He was the third of Karla Ramos’ sons to be affected by gun violence: One is serving time in a state prison, and another is disabled after being shot in the head.
This year, friends and neighbors celebrated Discua’s memory on July 5, the day he would have turned 22. Once again, gunfire rang out on Rose Street, where Discua’s friends gathered for his birthday-memorial: Yeurra Blaylock III, 25, a Mission High School graduate, was shot and killed.
For Discua’s mother, Ramos, the parallel was a tragic reminder of the repeated violence that is often turf-related and has plagued the Rose Street housing project and its young men.
“You could see [Blaylock] fall down, you could see everybody scrambling, and it just made me imagine: That’s what happened to my son,” Ramos said of surveillance camera footage she saw that captured the shooting. “I hear so many stories about that day, and I don’t have an answer.”
“It’s like a curse,” she added. “It’s hard, because when you live in this type of environment … even if you don’t want to associate, [other groups] already see you as a threat because you live here.”
Two suspects caught, one released
The memories returned last week, when the San Francisco Police Department announced that it had linked Discua’s 2022 murder to two men with gang ties and criminal histories, but the district attorney has not charged either man with the killing.
One suspect, Kameron Kaywood, 35, was arrested as part of a Bay Area-wide gang investigation earlier this year. The other, 25-year-old Delvon Carter, was arrested in San Francisco on July 19.
The SFPD linked Kaywood and Carter to Discua’s murder after Kaywood’s arrest this spring for unrelated crimes.
And, while Kaywood is in custody in Contra Costa County for crimes unrelated to Discua’s murder, Carter has since been released.
DA spokesperson Randy Quezada said Carter’s murder charge was dismissed “pending further investigation,” but charges could be refiled. In their initial announcement of his arrest, SFPD investigators said they had a warrant detainer on Kaywood for Discua’s murder, ensuring San Francisco will take him into custody when he is released by Contra Costa County, but Kaywood has not yet been charged.
Ramos, who has been waiting for the arrests for 13 months, said she received a “stupid answer” from the District Attorney’s Office on Friday about why Carter was released: That there was yet insufficient evidence to bring him before a jury.
“I just don’t understand why they would make an arrest to begin with. I mean, they must have something,” she said.
Kaywood was arrested in April in a multi-jurisdictional arrest of “known gang members” for possession of assault rifles, ammunition, and large-capacity magazines; before that, he had been found guilty, in 2021, of recklessly evading police and, in 2019, of driving under the influence. A 2020 civil lawsuit against Kaywood, from another driver he allegedly injured, said he has a much longer rap sheet, and has been charged with various other charges, including armed robbery and conspiracy.
Carter, meanwhile, has been arrested in multiple car-burglary sprees.
The police department did not respond to a request for comment on the arrests, or Carter’s subsequent release.
Brothers all affected by gangs and violence
The lack of accountability and answers has been difficult for Ramos. She says she still has not been permitted to see the video footage of her son’s shooting, and knows little about what happened that evening.
Ramos has seven other children, and her two older sons’ lives have also been affected by the violent gang environment they grew up in. Her 28-year-old eldest is in state prison, where he was sent straight from juvenile hall as a 17-year-old sentenced as an adult following charges of murder, assault with a firearm, battery, and other alleged crimes, according to criminal records.
And her second son, Brandon, is disabled for life after a 2019 incident in which he was shot in the head, in Discua’s presence. Discua, then 17, rushed his older brother to the hospital. Brandon survived, but now has limited mobility, cannot speak, and is blind in one eye.
Ramos is still awaiting justice in that case as well. The 26-year-old charged with Brandon’s attempted murder remains in county jail since he was booked in 2019, and his case has seen years of delays.
“I got mad at the DA and I said, ‘You know what, right now the whole system as it is in San Francisco — and excuse my language, but — it’s so fucked up,’” Ramos said of her call earlier this month regarding Discua’s alleged killers. “Anyone can come into the city and do anything, and it seems like there’s no consequences for nothing.”
The recent broad-daylight shooting on her son’s birthday was triggering, Ramos said, and in her mind, targeted: Ramos speculates that both birthday shootings were perpetrated by gangs from nearby projects who saw the celebrations on social media.
“I have to be on top of the last boy that I have,” she said, referring to her fourth son, who is now a teenager. “Unfortunately, he has the three worst examples that can happen to someone, when you choose the path that’s not great.”
Killed while hoping to leave San Francisco
Discua had been trying to get himself out of San Francisco, and his violent environment, in the weeks before he was killed: He had recently been released from jail for alleged car break-ins, was given an ankle monitor through his young adult diversion program, and was in the process of securing housing in San Jose.
“He really wanted to focus on going back to school, and then also starting his own business,” said Nina Davis, Discua’s case worker at FirstPlace for Youth last year. Davis said Discua was lively and witty, and excited to get his life back on track.
Dale Major, a lawyer who had represented Discua’s oldest brother, said he had taken Discua to work at a high school program at Sacramento State University, and Discua began to consider whether he wanted to go to college.
“He came back from the program, and he was murdered five days later,” Major said.
Davis said even when a young man decides to leave the gangs behind, doing so is difficult. “All of a sudden, you wanna walk away from that and change your life, other people might not be on the same page as you,” Davis said.
Ramos said she would like to leave the city, but depends on local resources for her 8-month-old baby with Down syndrome, whom she temporarily gave up her job to care for. She recently received an emergency housing voucher and is looking forward to moving somewhere new.
As she waits, Ramos continues to replay the image in her head of yet another man dying on her street, and is frustrated with the long process to get justice for her sons.
“I thought we were going to get some closure,” Ramos said. “And you turn around and say that you let them go. I don’t understand.”
Gee, another public housing project where boys are not socialized to be men. What a surprise. Of course, guns are the problem.
Saw a ‘Dad-ication” bill board in Oakland last month…almost wrecked the car. Apparently part of the National Responsible Father Clearinghouse campaign. Seems like someone is finally getting the message. But go ahead and play the race game…blood on your hands…
What a said story and my heart hurts for her . Reason 1 Trillin to end “white Privilege”
Not easy being a minority in a white mans world .
Justice for her and justice for Banko Brown who was killed execution style for being transgender . Defund the police . More money towards youth sports
You are not accusing white people of murdering this guy are you?
More money for youth sports is great, but it doesn’t help cure or prevent low or no income housing inhabitants from killing eath other or others who happen to be near by. Perhaps stop having so many kids you don’t want and cannot possibly afford, go to school consistently to get a reasonable education, and get a reasonable job. Afterwards, when you can afford children, have one or two, and then support them.