The San Francisco Medical Examiner’s office has identified the two victims killed in separate shootings in Bayview-Hunters Point just days apart this month.
The office identified the victims as 20-year-old Phillip Leo Jones IV, who was shot and killed on Oct. 4 in a residential area in Hunters Point, and 44-year-old Jose Juan Ramirez-Sanchez, who was killed on the first of the month.
Jones was shot and killed in broad daylight at 12:42 p.m. near an apartment complex in Reuel Court. Three days earlier, Ramirez-Sanchez died after being shot on Thomas Avenue near the Yosemite Slough waterfront on Thursday at 5:11 p.m.
Though two male suspects have been named in the killing of Ramirez-Sanchez, no arrests have yet been made. Both shootings are being treated as homicides.
At the San Francisco Police Department’s Bayview Station monthly community meeting on Tuesday, station captain Bernadette Robinson said that the shootings are being treated as isolated and independent crimes, and likely occurred as a result of a fight turned violent.
“They were just two people who had been fighting, and one person didn’t make it,” said Robinson. “There should be no public concern.” Robinson added that outside of the recent shootings, crime remains at a historic ebb.
The two back-to-back shootings have shocked the southeastern neighborhood, however. In the past two years, gun violence in Bayview-Hunters Point has dropped to an all-time low after decades in which the neighborhood held one of the highest rates of homicides in San Francisco.
Theo Ellington, a candidate for supervisor in the neighborhood and director of the Ruth Williams Opera House, said that just days earlier, a nonfatal shooting occurred outside the opera house, startling him and his staff.
“The recent gun violence in Bayview is unacceptable,” wrote Ellington in a post to Instagram. During a recent forum, Ellington, who grew up in the neighborhood, noted that he lost his cousin to gun violence at age 13. “In a matter of days, our community has experienced multiple shootings and lost two lives … We are all affected by this.”
A GoFundMe posted by Ramirez-Sanchez’s brother-in-law describes him as “a loving husband, father, brother, and cherished member of our family.”
Ramirez-Sanchez is survived by his wife and two daughters. His brother-in-law, Victor Calzada, said they are not only heartbroken, but no longer feel safe in their own home.
“His wife and two daughters are now facing the unimaginable pain of losing him while trying to navigate life without him,” wrote Calzada in the GoFundMe post. “They are grieving while also living with fear and uncertainty.”
The fundraiser, posted on Oct. 2, has raised $7,566 in donations so far, with a fundraising goal of $12,000 for funeral and “unexpected” expenses.
Friends and family of Jones also took to social media in the days following his killing. They said he went by the nickname “Pop,” and commenters posted broken hearts and prayer emojis. One user recalled hearing the sounds of gunshots from an adjacent street that night. “I’m so so sorry pop,” wrote another, “Love u.”
Contributing reporting from Bailey Zitko.
