Mission Street barbershop murder suspect pleads not guilty

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Alexander Martinez pleaded not guilty today to murder charges in the broad-daylight killing of Alberto Vargas Quero near a barbershop at Mission and 20th streets earlier this month, after a judge denied his attorney’s attempt to release him from jail. 

Vargas Quero, a 23-year-old Venezuelan immigrant who had just arrived in San Francisco, was shot and killed on Friday, April 5. He was working his first day at a barbershop on Mission Street and was killed after a dispute between the men, both sides agreed today in court. 

Despite any prior disagreement between the men, Assistant District Attorney Danielle Hilton called the killing a “completely unprovoked” and “random” attack. 

Martinez was charged last week with first degree murder, shooting a firearm from a car, carrying an unregistered loaded firearm, and carrying an unregistered concealed firearm in a car. 

“The charge is serious. It’s as serious as it gets,” said San Francisco Superior Court Judge Teresa Caffese before she granted the district attorney’s motion to keep Martinez, 30, in jail. Caffese also mentioned Martinez’s domestic-violence case from 2019 as a consideration. 

Hilton alleged that surveillance-camera footage shows Martinez purchase bread nearby, then begin engaging with Vargas Quero and another man as they stand outside the barbershop. Martinez threw bread at the men, Hilton said, then Vargas Quero threw bread back into Martinez’s car. 

Then, Martinez drove away in his car, pulled into the driveway of a nearby parking garage, and fired shots down the sidewalk. 

“He shoots down the sidewalk and hits the victim as he was running,” Hilton said. 

Martinez’s public defender, Semuteh Freeman, said she viewed the encounter differently. She called the single shot that Martinez fired down Mission Street a “warning shot.” 

“He was in fear, and he fired a warning shot,” Freeman told Mission Local after the hearing. Martinez then drove away, and was arrested in Richmond on April 6. 

Freeman said that Martinez was unaware that anyone had been shot when police questioned him, and said there was no video evidence that Vargas Quero was struck directly from the bullet’s pathway — the bullet might have struck something else first, she said. 

In surveillance footage reviewed by Mission Local, three men are outside the barbershop as a gun is apparently fired from outside the frame. In the moment before that shot, one man is turning into the shop and another, further away, begins running toward the shop. It is unclear which is Vargas Quero. A third man, apparently a bystander, jumps back as glass shatters near him. 

Martinez appeared in court today in an orange jumpsuit, sporting a long ponytail. He waived his right to a speedy preliminary hearing. 

Three of his family members were also in attendance, Freeman confirmed. As he was taken back to custody, Martinez turned to say an “I love you” and blew kisses across the courtroom in their direction. 

Martinez was born in San Francisco and grew up in Minnesota with his mother, according to Freeman’s motion to release him filed on Monday. At 16, Martinez moved back to San Francisco to live with his father, and graduated high school here. 

At the time of the shooting, Martinez was living in Richmond. His three children, ages 7, 8 and 10, also live in Richmond with their mother. 

Freeman said that Martinez, as a Latino man, has faced “people asking where he is from, and harassing or bullying him.” 

Caffese agreed, upon request from Freeman, to order a report for possible mental health diversion. 

Vargas Quero’s family observed the proceedings online from Bogotá, where they live. 

If you’d like to assist the family’s efforts to bring Alberto Vargas Quero’s remains home, please click here.