A man crashed a car into the Chinese consulate at Laguna Street and Geary Boulevard this afternoon, breaching the building in what appears to have been an intentional act. Police have sent out a bulletin announcing an officer-involved shooting, and a police source tells Mission Local that a San Francisco Police Department sergeant shot and killed the driver of the vehicle.
This evening, police officially confirmed that the driver has died.
The rationale behind today’s incident is not known, nor is the identity of the driver. Mission Local has reached out to both the SFPD’s on-call Public Information Officer and the Medical Examiner.
A police source says the shooting appears to have actually occurred within the Chinese consulate, which brings about puzzling jurisdictional scenarios.
The SFPD is working with the U.S. State Department and the Chinese consulate in the wake of today’s car crash and shooting.
Post St
Laguna St
Pacific Heights
Geary Blvd
Fillmore
Shortly after 3 p.m., a
blue Honda Civic crashed
through a set of double doors
at the Chinese Consulate
Cleary Ct
Mission
Post St
Laguna St
Geary Blvd
Cleary Ct
Shortly after 3 p.m., a
blue Honda Civic crashed
through a set of double doors
at the Chinese Consulate
Pacific Heights
Chinatown
Fillmore
Map by Will Jarrett. Basemap from Mapbox.
Sergii Molchanov, who was at the scene, filmed and posted the video below. On the social network formerly known as Twitter, he claimed that the driver emerged from his blue Honda shouting, “Where is CCP?” — the Chinese Communist Party — and fought with security guards. Molchanov wrote that, after police arrived, he heard two gunshots.
He told Mission Local that the driver was an Asian man in his 30s with long hair, whose face was bleeding after the crash.
“I was inside, waiting for my turn to submit the the documents for my visa, and suddenly a car, in full speed, crashed via the main door and hit the wall, just two meters from where I was sitting,” he wrote to Mission Local.
It was at this point that the driver came out shouting and fighting. Molchanov wrote that “terrified visitors, including myself,” ran from the scene. Police arrived shortly thereafter, and the driver was shot dead.
A user of the Chinese social media network Xiaohongshu, who was also at the consulate, wrote that the driver emerged from his car carrying a small knife. After interacting with the guard for a bit, the driver seemed to want to take out another, longer object: “Everyone was panicking at the time, because we thought it was a gun.”
The Xiaohongshu user wrote that the driver crashed into the security check gate, then hit the gas before colliding with the wall: “It doesn’t look like an accident.”
The crash and shooting come on the cusp of next month’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, during which some 30,000 visitors will descend upon San Francisco, along with high-ranking leaders from 21 nations — including China. Today’s events, Mission Local is told, will likely result in far more security being allotted to any Chinese diplomats or other attendees.
The San Francisco Police Department, which is experiencing a highly publicized officer shortage, will be supplemented by scads of mutual-aid officers from elsewhere, including perhaps as many as 700 California Highway Patrol officers. Organizers are scrambling to come up with hotel accommodations for this cavalcade of cops.
Today’s events figure to complicate what was already a complicated endeavor.
This is a breaking story and will be updated as more information comes to light.
Additional reporting by Marta Franco, Kelly Waldron and Junyao Yang.
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.
Lots of mental illness in the world right now.
My dearest friend is Chinese, and she was menaced by a woman wielding a hammer in the Mission the other day, but fortunately a good samaritan came along and rescued her from the planned assault.
This is unusual in that the assailant was Asian. Some freight he was carrying around from his past involving the Communist Chinese? Violence against Asians in the City is as old as the City. Different groups just take turns doing the damage. But they don’t do this to each other.
like opaque china itself we have no additional information on the circumstances of this serious incident days later. not even a scheduled public event to discuss the officer-involved shooting as per sfpd policy.
welcome to the new san francisco where catering to the chinese government is akin to supporting our chinese community.
Joe,
Great opening story for Asia meets SF w/out Rose Pak to keep order.
h.
The Chinese government is probably going to demand greater security around the building. I wonder if SF will have to close the street. Can’t close Geary, but they could close Laguna.
I suspect that the State department would decide such a thing, not the city.