Four Warfield staff members described a chaotic end to a Friday night event that led to the fatal shooting of security guard Ulysses Tykee Davis early Saturday morning, a man who colleagues said went by the nickname “Bear.”
San Francisco police did not specify where the shooting occurred, saying only that officers responded near 1 a.m. on Saturday to the 900 block of Market Street and found a man suffering from a gunshot wound. He later died at a hospital. The police homicide unit is investigating the incident.
The city’s medical examiner confirmed the victim’s identity to Mission Local Monday. Davis was 47 years old, and a resident of Contra Costa County.
Four Warfield staff members told Mission Local that the victim worked security at the theater. A fifth man, who said he witnessed the shooting, said a security guard had been shot, apparently at random.
They identified the victim by his nickname, Bear. They requested anonymity due to the active homicide investigation, and said they feared losing their jobs.
Their accounts describe a chaotic evening featuring stars of the reality TV show “Baddies USA Chapter 3.” The franchise follows a cast of women traveling between U.S. cities for performances as personal disputes frequently erupt into verbal confrontations and physical fights.
Friday’s 18-and-over Warfield event was listed as part of filming for the show’s new season and advertised what it called a “powerhouse performance.” Doors were scheduled to open at 8 p.m., with the performance beginning at 9 p.m.
The venue lists its concert capacity at 2,250 people. Three bartenders who spoke with Mission Local estimated that less than a thousand people attended Friday’s show, putting the theater at less than half its capacity.
The night was chaotic, according to five people on site.
At about 12:45 a.m. Saturday, one bartender said he heard coworkers screaming in the lobby.
He said he ran toward the lobby bar and saw people rushing out of the theater, trampling over one another and shouting, “I can’t breathe!”
“Everyone started jumping over the bar, people started taking stuff, and then someone swung on one of my coworkers,” he said.
The bartender said his eyes started burning and his nose began to itch: Someone had released a chemical irritant inside the theater that staff described as bear mace, according to the bartender and staff Slack messages reviewed by Mission Local.
Bartenders who said they were also in the lobby at that time described “hundreds of people” swarming out from the theater as they covered their noses and mouths. Many were coughing, their eyes streaming and red.
One woman paused to vomit in the corner of the room, one bartender recalled.
A lobby bartender said one person who had run out of the theater lunged at her and took a swing at her face. But a person she believed was a Warfield security guard pulled her away before the assailant could make contact.
“He saved me,” she said, tears in her voice.
About 15 minutes later, two bartenders said, staff were cleaning up after the rush of people when two gunshots erupted near the lobby.
The pair dropped to the floor.
At 1:04 a.m., a member of Warfield staff wrote in a staff Slack channel: “shots outside. they are shooting.”
“Got pushed around on the way out and left pretty quickly but I thought I heard that too,” another staff member responded. “Sad!”
According to two bartenders and contemporaneous Slack messages, four workers hid in an office and locked the door.
“Go in office and stay there for a while,” a staffer advised the group.
The man who said he witnessed the shooting and asked not to be identified because the homicide investigation remains active, said he had been standing near the box office, in the theater’s entryway, when he saw a woman take a handgun from another woman.
Someone shouted, “Gun!” he recalled.
The witness said the woman then pointed the gun in his direction. He briefly ran and then hit the ground before hearing three shots.
When he looked back, he said, he saw that a security guard near the theater’s entrance had been shot.
“It looked like she wanted to just punish anybody,” the witness said of the woman waving the gun. “She was upset for whatever reason. She shot randomly.”
That account has not been confirmed by police.
The theater’s management company, Goldenvoice, did not return a request for comment.
The witness said he later saw San Francisco police detain a woman after the shooting, but said she was not the woman he had seen holding the gun and waving it before shots were fired.
The SFPD has not announced an arrest or released information about a suspect. The department did not return a request for comment.
The shooting disrupted activity scheduled at the Warfield in the following days.
A rally featuring U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders that had been scheduled at the Warfield later Saturday was moved to the Curran Theatre. Signs outside the Warfield attributed the move only to “unforeseen circumstances.”
The Warfield also now lists Tuesday’s “Hokus Pokus Live!” performance as canceled.
Theater workers mourned the loss of their colleague.
“I’m pissed off at everyone,” one of the bartenders told Mission Local as she broke into tears. “The people who are supposed to protect us are the ones who get shot.”
The bartenders described Bear as well-liked. They did not know his full name and were not sure how long he had been working at the theater.
“I’m crushed,” another bartender said. “These guys are the ones that are paid the least, and they’re out there protecting us and protecting the people that come to the venue. And it just is heartbreaking that they’re no longer with us.
“It seems so pointless.”
At 9:30 a.m. Saturday, one worker wrote in the staff Slack channel: “Last night sucked.”
Two minutes later, another responded: “RIP Bear 💔”
As the day wore on, theater staff appeared to learn that their coworker had been killed.
“I’m sad for Bear, his family, and everyone that was there,” one worker wrote shortly before 1 p.m.
At 1:27 p.m., someone asked: “How is Bear doing?”
Less than a minute later, a response: “he passed”
