SFPD posts $50K reward for info on 2012 Mission District homicide

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The San Francisco Police Department announced a $50,000 reward for information about the suspect who fatally shot 39 year-old Robert Monzon in the Mission District on March 10, 2012. 

No suspects were ever charged for the killing, and police officers were unable to give a description of the suspect or motive for the shooting back in 2012.

In its Wednesday bulletin, the department wrote that “A red SUV was seen fleeing from the scene immediately after the shooting,” which took place at 23rd and Shotwell streets at around 7:22 p.m. that night.

Mission Local reported on the shooting at the time. It left neighbors shaken. 

“The two young children were playing video games in the front room of their home at the corner of 23rd and Shotwell streets on Friday night when they heard the gunshots,” wrote Mission Local reporter Jaime Goldberg then. “It was 7:22 p.m.”

“‘Get out!’ screamed their grandmother before ushering the children to the back of the house,” Goldberg continued. “Hearing people cry for help, the children’s mother ran outside to find a group surrounding the 39-year-old victim, who was later pronounced dead from gunshot wounds at San Francisco General Hospital.”

One neighbor recalled hearing gunshots followed by a car crash. Monzon’s car remained on the street until police towed it around midnight; he had crashed into an unoccupied, parked car on the corner of 23rd and Shotwell after being shot. 

The Mission District and San Francisco were far more violent then than they are today; the city saw 69 homicides in 2012, compared to 35 last year.

That spring, 24th Street residents in particular were rocked by several daylight shootings: Three people were shot over a March-April weekend that year and, over June and July, four more shootings took place. 

“Obviously, four shootings in 30 days is indicative that something is either stirring within the Norteños or Sureños, or another rival gang is coming into the neighborhood,” then-Police Chief Greg Suhr told Mission Local at the time.

Anyone with information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator is encouraged to contact Homicide Sergeant Scott Warnke at 415-553-9249, or the or the SFPD 24 Hour Tip Line at 1-415-575-4444.