Following a fight at the 16th Street BART Plaza late Wednesday afternoon, a man was shot and taken away by an ambulance with life-threatening injuries, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
Mission Local learned in a police news release on Thursday morning that the victim died of his wounds. He is listed as a 20-year-old Black male.
Several eyewitnesses also said the man was Black, and wearing a black shirt. Witnesses standing on the sidewalk and in nearby businesses reported hearing four gunshots at around 5:30 p.m.
Onlookers described a crowd of about 20 young people gathered near the bus stop on Mission Street before the shooting occurred. Watching from the storefront across the street, Esther, 18, remembered seeing one man in a pink shirt at the center of a skirmish.
Esther was standing behind the register at the Kitava Kitchen on 16th Street, shortly after clocking in for the 5:30 p.m. Wednesday shift when shouting came from outside.
Esther then ducked behind the register.
“I remember seeing dust or dirt fly up with each shot,” Esther said. When the gunshots rang out, Esther said the crowd scattered.
Waiting for a Food Not Bombs meal, Enzo, 70, said he heard women talking loudly immediately before hearing the pops.
“I walked over there and I saw a person just lying there on the ground,” Enzo said.
Police arrived at 5:41 pm, about five minutes after the shooting occurred, blocking off a portion of Mission Street and the entirety of the northeast plaza with police tape. The paramedics arrived soon afterward and immediately administered CPR.
There were a dozen police cars, one paramedic truck, and three fire trucks on the scene. About 50 people were watching from the plaza and around the Mission and 16th intersection.
Shortly after 6 p.m., a group of five officers approached a man sitting in a group by a station of electric bikes. Telling the man he was not under arrest, officers placed him in cuffs and walked him to a police car off of 16th Street. It was unclear if the arrest was related to the shooting.
By 6:30 p.m., the BART plaza was still teeming with police, but most onlookers had cleared out of the area.
As of 7 p.m., according to police, no arrests had been made.
In the past two months, there have been two fatal shootings in the Mission.
This is an open and active investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact the SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP 411 and begin the message with SFPD.
Additional reporting by Joe Eskenazi.
My heart goes to all the good people of the Mission who have been failed by a broken SFPD, and the Mission’s deeply toxic politicians who value virtue signaling and pandering to the alt-left over the lives of their own constituents.
None of us can pretend this is normal.
26th BART is unfortunately filthy and full of criminals. Mentally unstable addicts, people selling stolen goods, the knife and gun club. It needs a stationed police presence and foot patrols.
Couldn’t you at least have read the entirety of the headline before plopping down your canned, reactionary response? This occurred near the 16th Street station.
Yes, foot patrols are needed, and it’s unacceptable that a cop station two blocks away couldn’t supply some. But BART isn’t the post-apocalyptic hellscape of every troll’s imagination.
I wonder how many citations and arrests a competent police department could make at the 16th Street BART station every day. 50? 100? 200? More?
“Telling the man he was not under arrest, officers placed him in cuffs and walked him to a police car off of 16th Street. It was unclear if the arrest was related to the shooting.”
Typo or new approach for SFPD?
London Breed major failing for San Franciscan she harassing food vendors in the street , but she can’t control both bart stations the stolen good, from various stores are for sale every single day , they need to patrol police need to make presence to avoid this situation and make it some what safe for the working people using public transportation.
I have worked for BART for 35 years and sadly have seen the Mission go downhill for many years. Such a cool area of SF, full of life and culture. We must stop treating each other like enemies and thinking a human life isn’t precious. It’s ok to have a disagreement, but ending the conversation should never include taking this action. I blame some of it on media and games like GTA or a first person shooter game. They desensitize people to the point that doing such a terrible thing is nothing more than hitting a moth while driving down the road. I also blame it on substance abuse and mental health. Too many freely available drugs and no treatment for mental health. cases. The deceased was someone’s baby, brother, uncle, father, grandson and the sadness that will follow this action that took 10 seconds to enact will last a lifetime. This isn’t who we are, is it? Have we devolved to this? This isn’t the Wild West, the gangs of New York or the country of Cambodia. I hope we can heal our country and learn to love one another again. It’s better when we do. Violence is not the answer, ever.
Hope he pulled through, but CPR on scene for a gunshot wound makes it unlikely.
“Telling the man he was not under arrest, officers placed him in cuffs and walked him to a police car …”
If he wasn’t under arrest, what rights does he have? Any, at all? Did the police just, kidnap a man in broad daylight, taking advantage of the tragic situation? How bizarre, and possibly chilling.