Prosecutors today connected Javier Campos, the suspect accused of last year’s Mission District mass shooting, to a social media account that bragged about a shooting in the days afterwards — and attempted to connect suspect Campos to neighborhood gangs.
This would appear to confirm Mission Local’s prior reporting detailing the online brags Campos posted after the shooting.
“Ima make sure them n**** neva post up on that block again,” read an Instagram post from an account police said today belonged to Campos, the 23-year-old arrested on June 14 for the drive-by shooting of nine people, days earlier, at 24th Street and Treat Avenue.
Campos made his first appearance in court as part of a multi-day preliminary hearing that will determine whether his case goes to trial.
The Instagram account shows a man, apparently Campos, squatting over cash, guns, medicine-like bottles, and plastic bags. Prosecutors have suggested that Campos used a gray or silver Mercedes-Benz to execute the shooting and flee — and a similar Mercedes can also be seen in Campos’ music videos.
Javier Campos: His Social Media & Family History
Officer Michael Mayo, who works with the San Francisco Police Department’s Community Violence Reduction Team, formerly the Gang Task Force, said he knew Campos to be the owner of the Instagram account “boogangj.baby” where the apparent brag was posted.
Mayo also said he had previously seen Campos in the gray Mercedes, and that he had arrested or detained Campos several times before, including once for an assault outside Beauty Bar, where Campos was captured on video.
A vehicle of a similar color and size also appeared in a series of surveillance videos taken from nearby streets in the minutes after the incident, which were shown in court today.
Speaking as a witness for the prosecution, Mayo said he believed Campos and his associates to be affiliated with the Sureño street gang, which typically claims Dolores Park, Franklin Square Park and the area between 16th and 19th streets on Mission as its territory.
Meanwhile, the area of 24th Street where the shooting occurred is known to be where Norteño gang members typically congregate.
Campos faces eight counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, as well as other charges, including discharging a firearm from a car, possession of ammunition, and carrying a loaded firearm. Several of his charges include gang enhancements.
While the District Attorney’s Office has applied gang enhancements to some charges, Assistant District Attorney Stacie Pettigrew has not yet established a connection between Campos and the Sureño gang.
Public Defender Seth Meisels, who is representing Campos, made frequent objections throughout the hearing to the purported gang affiliation, and Judge Jeffrey Ross said he had not yet heard convincing evidence of Campos’ gang affiliation.
Campos has a history with the criminal justice system involving guns, assault and drug smuggling; he is also wanted in Oakland in connection with a homicide from last January. His family, too, had a troubled history: His father and step-brother were killed within a month of each other when Campos was 12, his father just 11 days after being released from a two-year prison sentence.
Today’s hearing, which lasted several hours, also saw two witnesses recount seeing wounded victims on the street corner and in the hospital after the shooting.
“We saw somebody drop at the corner,” said Freddi Kirchner, a nearby resident, who testified today that she came upon the shooting as she was headed to an event at nearby Adobe Books.
As she walked south on Treat Avenue near 24th Street, she saw a car make a strange U-turn movement at the intersection, she said, and then drive diagonally into the southeast corner, where people had congregated at a block party. Then she heard gunshots.
“Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba!” Kirchner said, demonstrating the six evenly-spaced shots she heard in quick succession, clapping with each one.
Kirchner said she saw what she took to be a gray or silver car that “fired” south on Treat Avenue after the shooting. When she continued towards the bookstore, she came upon a victim limping away from the scene.
“I stood over him to make sure he was okay,” she said, adding that he refused to wait for an ambulance. Eventually, the victim’s brother arrived in a car and picked him up.
The second witness who testified today, a police investigator, spoke with three victims in the hospital who described falling to the ground or being unable to walk after shots were fired.
“He heard loud noises, fell to the ground and realized he had been shot,” said Officer Kevin Nestor, regarding one victim he spoke to in the emergency room. The victim had dragged himself across the street, away from the scene, he said.
“He tried to stand up, and he saw that his leg was dangling.”
Throughout the day, Campos, who was dressed in orange jail garb and white sneakers, tapped his feet restlessly. He remained expressionless.
The preliminary hearing will continue tomorrow.
He is not a rap god. He is not a hip-hop legend.
He is an attempted mass murderer and a pathological narcissist of the highest order. Lock him up for the rest of his pathetic days.
Make a loud example of him. Scare the living daylights out of any idiot who gets inspired to try and follow in his footsteps.
Remove his content from YouTube ASAP.
What a moron! Sounds like he’s going to have a lot of time to think about his choices.
Boojang’s rhymes are good, too bad he f’d it all up. Tens of thousands of views since he went down
From the YT comments – “Mission Local sent me here”:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C3jiLHDjKHY
Wow what a total loser.