Daly City police officers chased a Sonoma County robbery suspect into San Francisco on Friday afternoon which, according to video posted online, ended in a multi-car crash on San Jose Avenue near Bernal Heights and Glen Park.
It is unclear whether there were any injuries. Daly City police did not confirm the incident, despite multiple requests from Mission Local. Two officers on duty said they could not locate any such incident.
Video from the scene shared on Citizen after 4 p.m. showed a car tilted on its side with its wheels against a barrier, another car with a smashed front bumper, and another car smashed and perpendicular to the roadway. A fourth car was also stopped, but its damage was not visible in the video.
According to a press release from the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety, a man allegedly stole a bank deposit bag full of cash from an employee at Pep Boys auto shop in Rohnert Park, near Santa Rosa, on Friday afternoon around 1 p.m. He fled in a getaway car.
Police notified nearby stations of the car’s license plate, and the car was found in Daly City that same afternoon. Daly City police then pursued the car into San Francisco, according to the Rohnert Park statement, where “the suspect vehicle was crashed during the pursuit” alongside, apparently, multiple other cars on the busy roadway.
Four people fled on foot from the suspect car and three of them were arrested, according to the statement. Daly City police found the bank deposit bag in the car.
Rohnert Park officers took custody of 19-year-old Myles Jerel Wilkerson of Oakland for robbery and conspiracy. Wilkerson is also allegedly wanted for a separate crime in Oakland.
San Francisco police said the department was “not the lead in that investigation.” California Highway Patrol said “this incident was handled by Daly City and San Francisco Police Departments.”
The crash comes on the heels of another high-profile crash that injured six people on 24th Street after San Francisco police chased two women allegedly driving a wanted car from the area of Stonestown Mall to the Mission District.
One of the stated purposes of Daly City’s police vehicle pursuit policy is “to reduce the potential for pursuit-related collisions.” It tells officers to consider “the importance of protecting the public” and emphasizes a balance between the suspected offense and “the apparent need for immediate capture against the risks to officers, innocent motorists, and others.”
San Francisco police are instructed to make similar judgment calls, but there have been shifts toward loosening restrictions on vehicle pursuits, particularly with the passage of Prop. E last March.
Glad they arrested 3 of them. Too bad one got away. Good Job SFPD and DCPD for catching them!
These guys should be allowed to abscond without pursuit. It does not make sense to enforce any sort of consequences for their actions. Let’s leave them alone to do what ever they want.
Well SFPD, it’s apparent that Officer Jon Cook died in vain.
I lived on 17th St near Dolores when that crash happened. I remember the smashed cars and read of his death. Driving fast kills people faster.
So the robbers steal a bag with maybe a couple hundred in it and police pursue resulting in a crash that causes possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, let alone potential injuries or fatalities? One of you pro-police chase guys tell me how this adds up and increases public safety
Don’t chase them, next crime they shoot and kill somebody, maybe a neighbor? Crimes have consequences, I accept it, I guess some don’t.
Or you find out where they’re going via surveillance, basic sh!t really, and you go arrest them there? False dichotomies are the pets of simple minds.
It’s not like a TV show. People in stolen cars are more likely to commit other more serious crimes than you and I. Yes, cameras are nice, but they are not on every street corner like in Europe. People just watch too much TV or streaming shows.