San Francisco officials named Xavier Pittman as a suspect in connection with a Father’s Day shooting and burglary incident that injured six people, including a 10-year-old girl who was hit by a car near the busy Fisherman’s Wharf area.

Two people were hit by gunfire and three people were injured by glass shards, authorities said. Two girls, ages 10 and 16, were hit by a vehicle while walking their bicycles across the Embarcadero; the younger girl was injured in the events that were described as “total chaos” by witnesses.

The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office has now charged Pittman in connection with burglaries that happened before the shooting incident.

Pittman, 25, has been involved in at least one shooting incident in San Francisco before. In 2021, he earned a rare apology from Police Chief Bill Scott after he was shot by an undercover cop who was moving in to arrest him in connection with a series of car burglaries.

The gun negligently went off, hitting Pittman in the wrist. After filing a lawsuit against the city, Pittman received a $195,000 settlement in June 2022 from the city Board of Supervisors. 

At a Thursday press conference at San Francisco police headquarters, police did not refer to the 2021 incident, focusing instead on the Father’s Day car-to-car shooting between an Infiniti and a Chevrolet at Fisherman’s Wharf.

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott announces the arrests of suspects Thursday in a Father’s Day car-to-car shooting as San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins looks on. | Source: George Kelly/The Standard

“We have to hold them accountable. That is why we’re here today, because we have done a tremendous investigation to find those responsible for that horrific shooting that terrorized people across our city,” Scott said. “Mind you, two innocent little girls were caught up, one hit by a car.”

Deputy Police Chief Robert O’Sullivan said investigators learned suspects in the Infiniti were part of an auto burglary “bipping” crew that had committed several car-break-ins in the hour before the shooting. Officers later learned that Oakland police and firefighters found the Infiniti torched in Oakland. 

After identifying Pittman, 22-year-old Richard Tuiasosopo and a male juvenile as having been inside the Infiniti, officers worked to obtain search warrants before executing them Wednesday at six different addresses with help from multiple police department units, as well as the Richmond, Vallejo and South San Francisco police.

During the searches, officers found four assault-style rifles and 13 handguns.

Pittman and the juvenile were arrested Wednesday. Tuiasosopo was already in Alameda County Jail. 

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said her office had charged Pittman, who it believes to be a passenger in the Infiniti, with conspiracy and two counts of burglary. Pittman is scheduled for arraignment at 1:30 p.m. Friday at San Francisco Superior Court.

Jenkins added that she expects to charge Tuiasosopo as soon as he is released from Alameda County Jail, before adding that she could not answer questions about the minor.

“We asked for your trust at that time, given we were not able to file charges, that we would work with the San Francisco Police Department to make sure that we held those responsible for this accountable,” Jenkins said.

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Days after moving forward with the case against a San Francisco police officer charged with manslaughter in the 2017 shooting death of a man on his doorstep, the San Francisco Attorney’s Office announced it would drop the case.

A deputy prosecutor, Brooke Jenkins, last week announced plans to hold a preliminary hearing on September 6 in Officer Kenneth Cha’s case, the latest of three counts of violence filed by former district attorney Chesa Boudin, who was recalled by voters in the electorate last year. Jenkins’ office dismissed the other two cases.

The 2017 incident marked the first time a police shooting was filmed with an officer’s body camera in San Francisco.

Sean Moore can be seen on the steps of his home in bodycam video taken by the San Francisco Police Department before he was shot by Kenneth Cha. | Courtesy of SFPD

Cha shot and killed Sean Moore on January 6 of this year during an altercation at Moore’s home in the Ocean View neighborhood. Four months after the shooting of Moore, Cha fatally shot a knife-armed suspect at a Market Street Subway restaurant.

Moore, who suffered from mental health issues that may have played a role in his interaction with Cha, died in 2020 while serving time in San Quentin State Prison for an unrelated incident. Cha was charged with involuntary manslaughter by then-prosecutor Boudin in 2021. In July 2022, the case was taken over by a new assistant district attorney after Jenkins was appointed district attorney following Boudin’s recall. Several delays in the case followed.

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins addresses the San Francisco Standard on May 31, 2023. | Justin Katigbak for The Standard

The firing was first reported by Mission Local on Sunday. In a statement, Jenkins said her office could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Cha “did not act in reasonable self-defense.”

She pointed to an unreleased internal report by former District Attorney George Gascón’s office that cited insufficient evidence that Cha or two other responding officers broke the law in the incident.

“Mr. Moore’s subsequent death, tragic as it is, has not changed the analysis based on events at the time of the incident,” Jenkins said in the statement.

Rebecca Young, an attorney representing Moore’s family, called prosecutors’ sudden about-face in the case “doubtful” and “idiotic.”

Young said that Ken Blackmon, Moore’s brother, was so angry when Assistant District Attorney Darby Williams called the family on Friday about the decision not to press charges against Cha that he refused to speak to her and hung up.

On Monday, Cha’s attorney, Scott Burrell, hailed the firing as a “bold and correct move.” He called the officer’s trip “a cautionary tale that when a prosecutor’s office prioritizes politics over compliance, everyone is in danger.”

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The trial of a San Francisco police officer charged with involuntary manslaughter for shooting dead a man on the victim’s doorstep, which eventually led to his death several years later, continues in September when prosecutors are expected to find evidence in the victim’s home case will be presented.

The case of officer Kenneth Cha, whose preliminary hearing will be held on September 6, is the latest of three such counts of force charged by former prosecutor Chesa Boudin. The other two cases were dismissed.

The case revolves around Cha’s shooting death of Sean Moore in the Ocean View neighborhood in 2017. Moore was shot and killed on his doorstep by Cha but did not die until three years later from injuries sustained in the shooting.

The incident marked the first time in San Francisco that a police shooting was captured with a body-worn camera. Later that same year, Cha shot and killed a man armed with a knife at a Subway restaurant on Market Street.

“I hope the prosecutor sets a date for the preliminary investigation,” said Rebeca Young, who is representing the victim’s family.

Moore’s brother expressed relief that the long-delayed case is finally moving forward.

“This case has been going on for so long; It kind of took a toll on my mom,” said Ken Blackmon.

Sean Moore can be seen on the steps of his home in a still bodycam captured by the San Francisco Police Department before he was shot by Kenneth Cha. | Courtesy of SFPD

Moore, who suffered from mental health issues that may have played a role in his interaction with Cha, died in 2020 while serving time in San Quentin State Prison for an unrelated incident. Cha was charged with involuntary manslaughter by then-district attorney Boudin in 2021.

In July 2022, the case was taken over by a new assistant district attorney after Jenkins was appointed prosecutor following Boudin’s recall. Several delays in the case followed.

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Neighbors pay for extra eyes to patrol the community

Christien Kafton from KTVU reports.

SAN FRANCISCO – Neighbors in the Marina District of San Francisco have teamed up and are paying for extra eyes to keep an eye out for crime.

Car break-ins are commonplace in San Francisco. People who live and work in the city’s Marina District say their area is not immune to crime.

“There have been break-ins in stores, car windows have been broken, you can see one at least every week if not every day,” said Michelle Avedissian.

“Since moving here, I’ve broken into my car a few weeks after I moved in. So I see the concern that people are protecting their cars and going around checking,” said Jared Chavis.

Now, neighbors have banded together and paid for San Francisco Patrol Special Police Officer Alan Byard to patrol the area and respond to everything from break-ins to home invasions.

“I do everything a regular San Francisco cop does, except I don’t get involved in vehicle chases or write tickets,” Byard said.

Patrol special officers have been a part of the city since the 1850s. They work with sworn police officers and are hired to patrol a specific area and act with the same powers as police officers. Byard says that when he took over Marina Beat in 2017 he had around 60 clients, and lately the demand for his services has increased.

“It’s about 170 now. Probably 20 last month. Just because of what’s going on,” Byard said.

Those who live and work in the area say the extra eyes can’t hurt.

“Honestly, yes. That brings a breath of fresh air when someone walks around making sure the cars are in order,” said Chavis.

Byard said although he is paid to be here, those who don’t pay for his services benefit from being here. He pointed to houses in the area and said that even though they weren’t customers, he was guarding their homes and working to protect them.

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