FBI raid, San Francisco
FBI agents mill about outside a house on the 800 block of Lisbon Street following an early morning raid on Nov. 20, 2023

The loud, predawn FBI raid of a home on a sleepy Excelsior District block on Nov. 20 was tied to a shooting homicide at Crissy Field earlier this month, federal authorities confirmed today.

The U.S. Attorney’s office announced the arrest and charging of a 20-year-old named Leion Butler on Tuesday for the Nov. 12 shooting death of a man at Crissy Field. The Medical Examiner has since identified the victim as 32-year-old Hamza Walupupu.

Crissy Field is federal land, which led the FBI to be in charge of investigating the homicide. In an 11-page criminal complaint, the feds lay out how they made their case against Butler — and why residents of Lisbon Street were awakened by flash-bang grenades on Nov. 20. 

On Nov. 12 at roughly 6:25 a.m., witnesses discovered a body in the parking lot of Crissy Field East Beach in the Presidio.

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Footage obtained from the 100 block of Kiska Road in Hunters Point caught the victim’s car at 6:43 a.m. on the day of the homicide.

In the early morning of Nov. 20, the FBI raided a home on the 800 block of Lisbon Street in the Excelsior, tied to the alleged killer.

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On Nov. 12 at roughly 6:25 a.m., witnesses discovered a body in the parking lot of Crissy Field East Beach in the Presidio.

Footage obtained from the 100 block of Kiska Road in Hunters Point caught the victim’s car at 6:43 a.m. on the day of the homicide.

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In the early morning of Nov. 20, the FBI raided a home on the 800 block of Lisbon Street in the Excelsior, tied to the alleged killer.

Chart by Junyao Yang. Data from U.S. Department of Justice. Base map from Mapbox.

Butler, the complaint claims, allegedly shot Walipupu dead in Crissy Field before driving Walipupu’s car to Hunters Point to clean it of evidence. A Jeep that allegedly rendezvoused with Butler in Hunters Point was traced to the Lisbon Street home of a woman alleged to be Butler’s mother.

Data from a Presidio license plate reader and subsequent security footage caught the victim Walupupu’s car, a Hyundai Accent, being driven away from Crissy Field on Presidio Boulevard at 6:12 a.m. on Nov. 12 — by which time Walupupu had already been killed with a single shot to the head. This vehicle was recovered by San Francisco police in Hunters Point on Nov. 15, after having been “double parked for several days.” 

Footage obtained from the 100 block of Kiska Road in Hunters Point caught the victim’s car at 6:43 a.m. on the day of the homicide. A heavyset young Black person is seen speaking on the phone. A second vehicle, a black Jeep Commander, pulls up. The young Black person appears to transfer items from the victim’s Hyundai to the Jeep, and attempts to wipe down the Hyundai. 

The feds then traced the Jeep to a woman with the initials L.B., who lives on Lisbon Street in the Excelsior. The feds claim this woman is Butler’s mother, and that the heavyset person caught in the video footage is Butler. Cell phone data puts Butler in the vicinity of Crissy Field and, later, the 100 block of Kiska at the time of the homicide and the time of the video footage, respectively. 

The feds further claim that Butler called a number with the last four digits 7257. Mission Local has identified a woman with the initials L.B. living at the Lisbon Street home raided by the feds on Nov. 20 — and her phone number ends in those digits. 

An eyewitness to the FBI raid said they saw a person — “probably a woman” —  “in PJs and wrapped in a blanket,” being led by agents into a car. 

The criminal complaint describes Butler, who is listed at 293 pounds, as “a black male or female,” and describes the person matching Butler’s description in footage as a female. Butler’s booking log into San Francisco jail describes Butler as male. 

Butler has been charged with murder, and aiding and abetting. After pleading not guilty before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim on Nov. 21, Butler’s next court appearance is slated for later today. 

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Managing Editor/Columnist. Joe was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.

“Your humble narrator” was a writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, and a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine from 2015 to 2017. You may also have read his work in the Guardian (U.S. and U.K.); San Francisco Public Press; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner; Dallas Morning News; and elsewhere.

He resides in the Excelsior with his wife and three (!) kids, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.

The Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists named Eskenazi the 2019 Journalist of the Year.

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4 Comments

  1. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. If you’re going to be dumb enough to dispose of a body by leaving it in one of the City’s public open spaces, at least be smart enough to do it in McLaren Park.

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      1. Paul, I think the Foggy Goat is aware of where Chrissy Field is. He is suggesting that in the future, when disposing of a body in one of the Cities open spaces, try McClaren Park.

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