Double capturing in San Francisco’s Haight-Asbury rattles neighborhood

1 dead and another injured in shooting in San Francisco Haight-Ashbury

Two men were shot dead and one killed on Thursday afternoon in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Neighbors and business owners report that they have recently noticed an increase in gun violence and other types of crime in the area.

SAN FRANCISCO – A double gunfight in San Francisco Thursday left one dead and another injured, and the midday murder near the busy Haight Street and Masonic Avenue intersection rocked the violence-rising neighborhood.

“We didn’t hear anything, it came out of nowhere,” said Gregory Kazzouh, a clerk who was startled by the sudden gunfire outside his window.

Bystanders rushed to take cover in the market, and Kazzouh called 911.

Outside he could see someone bleeding on the sidewalk.

“To be honest, it’s sad that this neighbor is changing for the worse,” said Kazzouh, who grew up in Haight.

“It wasn’t like that a few years ago and it’s changing. I do not like it.”

When investigators were working on the crime scene, the victim’s body was covered with a yellow tarpaulin.

Some of his relatives arrived at the police compound, clearly desperate and embraced with tears.

MORE: 1 dead and another injured in shooting in San Francisco Haight-Ashbury

A second man was hit in the volley of shots and hospitalized, but details of the suspect and motive remained scarce.

“I can’t say that people knew each other, we just don’t know that yet,” said Captain Christopher Pedrini of the SFPD’s parking station.

Pedrini hears from residents alarmed that the once vibrant Upper Haight is now being ravaged by car and home break-ins and worse.

“In general, it’s a pretty quiet, peaceful neighborhood, although we’ve had some incidents lately that made people worry,” said Pedrini.

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Many traders in the corridor are demanding more police presence.

“There was shooting down here two weeks ago and a guy was stabbed to death a few weeks ago,” said Mike Bishop, who runs a retail store. “The police come and go because they don’t like DA Chesa Boudin. They don’t think he’s going to prosecute anyone, so they don’t want to do anything.”

Bishop heard the shots from his shop and came running.

“If the police were around, the guy might have waited and taken him to the next block,” Bishop said, “but a police presence is preventive policing and that’s what we ask, we need it because we get it be shot. “

When the scene was cleared and the road cleared, a US Mail truck was towed away with its tire flattened by a flying bullet.

And in the evening, the people driving home were largely unsuspecting when they passed a small sidewalk memorial to the victim, in which about a dozen candles were burning.

“It shakes my sense of security, but my sense of security has been shaken since Covid started, so this is what it is,” said Dustin Espersen, a 15-year-old Haight-Ashbury resident who is soon moving to New York.

“I tell people they are more aware of those around them,” said Aaron Sanders, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1968.

“I could have been here at the wrong time and it happens too often, too many people, it’s like everyone’s a little bit scared,” said Sanders.

The last shooting in the area two weeks ago was a block away in Haight and Central.

One person was injured in the incident and several parked cars and a coffee shop were riddled with bullets.

Police blamed gang tensions for the violence, and it is possible that the outbreak was related to gangs on Thursday.