SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco police are set to provide new details Thursday on their fatal shooting of a man who crashed a car into the Chinese Consulate earlier this month, including releasing new video from the incident.

Police scheduled a virtual town hall in the afternoon to update people on the investigation into the Oct. 9 crash that ended with the death of Zhanyuan Yang. San Francisco police typically host such town halls within 10 days of fatal police shootings.

Yang, a 31-year-old San Francisco resident, rammed a car into the visa office of the consulate, which is in a residential neighborhood next to a major street. Investigators so far haven’t released a possible motive or provided details of the shooting, including whether Yang had a weapon.

Sergii Molchanov was in line waiting for his turn to submit his visa documents when he said the blue Honda sedan barreled in through the main doors at full speed, barely missing him.

Molchanov told The Associated Press that the car struck a wall and the driver was bleeding from his head as he got out of the car, yelling about the C.C.P., an abbreviation for the Chinese Communist Party

Another witness, Tony Xin, told KTVU-TV that the driver was holding two knives when he exited the car and began arguing with security guards.

Police arrived less than a minute later, he said.

The crash was condemned by the Chinese government and by the White House. It took place as San Francisco prepared to host next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, a gathering of world leaders from Pacific Rim nations.

The San Francisco consulate has been targeted a number of times before. Among the most serious was a fire set by a Chinese man on New Year’s Day 2014 at the main entrance. It charred a section of the outside of the building.

The man, who was living in the San Francisco Bay Area, told authorities he was driven by voices he was hearing. He was sentenced to nearly three years in prison.

Copyright
© 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

The post San Francisco police to provide replace on deadly capturing of driver who crashed into Chinese language Consulate appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Took a break from the news this weekend? Worry not: we’ve rounded up some of the stories you missed in NorCal on Saturday and Sunday.

Oct 15, 2023 8:14 pm PDT | Updated Oct 16, 2023 8:20 am PDT

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — As the weekend wraps up, we’ve rounded up the stories you may have missed Saturday and Sunday to prepare you for Monday.

But before we jump into Northern California’s top stories, residents should know that a brief cooling trend returns on Monday as a weak cold front approaches the North Bay, according to National Weather Service forecasters. Coastal areas can expect highs in the 60s, while the rest of the Bay Area can plan on temps in the 70s and 80s.

Subscribe

A warming trend is expected for the latter half of the week.

National Weather Service graphic

In other news, a TV actress beloved for decades for her work on the show “Three’s Company” has died. A freeway shooting damaged one vehicle. And the mother of an actor featured in “Sandlot” was found dead.

Suzanne Somers, ‘Three’s Company’ Star, Dies At 76

• Somers had breast cancer for over 23 years and died Sunday morning.

Teen Killed in Fiery Crash Into Creek

• Two other teens suffered life-threatening injuries. The 21-year-old driver, who sustained minor injuries, was arrested for suspected DUI.

CHP Helicopter Rescues Man Trapped Against Sheer Cliff By Rising Tide

• The man was knee-deep in water when he was pulled to safety.

Teen Fires Gun In Altercation With Woman In Supermarket Parking Lot

• The pair skirmished over the sale of a car.

Man Attacked With A Baseball Bat, Hospitalized In San Mateo

• The victim was a Redwood City man. Police arrested a suspect.

Vehicle Hit By Gunfire In I-80 Freeway Shooting

• The shooting happened between Ashby and University avenues in Berkeley.

Deadly Crash On I-680 On Saturday

• The early-morning crash involved multiple vehicles .

2 Arrests In SF Business Robberies: Police

• Victims were pistol-whipped in two of the three cases.

Mom Of ‘Sandlot’ Actor Found Dead In NorCal Home, Boyfriend In Custody

• Deanna Esmaeel, the mother of Marty York and a Del Norte County sheriff’s deputy, was found dead Thursday morning, authorities said.

The post Helicopter Rescue | Deadly Fiery Crash | Freeway Capturing: Weekend appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

JANIE HAR, Associated Press

3 hours ago

Nima Momeni, charged with murder in the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee, enters the courtroom at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco on Thursday, May 18, 2023. (Paul Kuroda/ The Standard via AP, Pool)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Technology consultant Nima Momeni on Thursday pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee on the streets of San Francisco.

San Francisco Superior Court Justice Victor Hwang ordered 38-year-old Momeni to remain in prison without bail because he posed a risk to public safety if released. Momeni, who appeared in an orange sweatshirt and trousers, said nothing and his attorney Paula Canny filed the plea on his behalf.

The case has garnered national attention, in part due to Lee’s status in the tech world. Lee was found shortly after 2:30 a.m. on April 4 with three stab wounds, including one to the heart, and was taken to a hospital, where he later died. He was found in the Rincon Hill neighborhood of downtown San Francisco, which has tech offices and condos but is quiet early in the morning.

Lee, 43, founded Cash App, a mobile payments service, and was chief product officer of cryptocurrency MobileCoin. He was mourned as a loving father of two who made friends everywhere.

Prosecutors have not revealed a motive but say Momeni stabbed Lee after an argument broke out over Momeni’s sister, who appeared in court with her mother on Thursday.

Deputy District Attorney Omid Talai on Thursday pleaded for Momeni to be held without bail, saying the defendant drove Lee to a remote location and used a knife that was part of a unique kitchen set owned by his sister. Police found a knife with a four-inch blade at the scene.

Talai said the analysis showed Momeni’s DNA on the knife’s handle and Lee’s DNA on the bloodied blade and no evidence that Lee touched the handle, contradicting Canny’s claim of self-defense for her client.

But Canny said that Momeni didn’t drive Lee to a secluded place to kill him. Instead, she said, Lee ordered him to stop after calling an Uber about the two getting into an argument. The last time Momeni saw Lee, Canny said, Lee stood up and walked away.

“People can argue without knowing that someone has been mortally wounded,” she said in court, later adding, “All of us, including my client, are heartbroken that Bob Lee has died.”

Canny said Momeni has close ties to the community and must stay and fight the charges or face deportation to Iran, which would separate him from the two people he loves most, his mother and sister. Momeni is not a US citizen.

Outside the courtroom, Canny described the encounter as “a mixture of self-defense and accident.” There was no premeditated advice.”

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins dismissed the idea when speaking to reporters after the indictment. “We believe we have Mr. Lee’s killer, and that is Mr. Momeni,” she said.

Nima Momeni was 14 years old when his mother took the children to the United States. She fled Iran and had a husband who had been abusive and violent to the family for years, his mother wrote in a letter presented to the court in support of her son’s release in court.

She said her son was generous, kind, and contributed financially when she enrolled in college to train as a dental hygienist. He taught himself computer technology.

Momeni was arrested last month at his home in Emeryville, across the street from San Francisco.

An unnamed friend of Lee told homicide detectives they had been hanging out and drinking with Momeni’s sister the day before the stabbing, prosecutors said in a motion to hold Momeni without bail.

The friend said Momeni later asked Lee if his sister was using drugs or otherwise behaving inappropriately, and Lee said she wasn’t.

The girlfriend and Lee later parted ways, and surveillance video showed Lee entering the ritzy Millennium Tower downtown, where Momeni’s sister Khazar lives with her husband, renowned San Francisco plastic surgeon Dino Elyassnia. Video footage then showed Lee and Momeni exiting the building together just after 2 a.m. and driving away in Momeni’s car.

If convicted, Momeni faces 26 years in prison.

The post Suspect in deadly stabbing of Money App founder pleads not responsible – MyStateline.com appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

CNN
—

The security guard who shot dead a suspected shoplifter at a Walgreens in downtown San Francisco last month will not be prosecuted, prosecutors said Monday, saying the gunman acted in self-defense.

Brooke Jenkins prosecutors on Monday released surveillance video and a written report of Michael Anthony’s April 27 fatal shooting of Banko Brown.

According to the report, the guard said Brown repeatedly threatened to stab him before the shooting. The report stated that police did not find a knife in Brown’s possession, but prosecutors nevertheless concluded that his fears were valid.

“Given the totality of the circumstances, including the threat, which Anthony believed and could reasonably believe, the evidence shows that Brown’s shooting was not a criminal act as Anthony acted in lawful self-defense,” the report reads. “Anthony is therefore not criminally responsible for Brown’s death.”

However, Brown’s family attorney, John Burris, told CNN’s Sara Sidner that the security guard’s actions “went far beyond what was reasonable and necessary.”

“Stopping someone and talking to them is different than stopping them, beating them up and eventually killing them,” Burris said Tuesday

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors last week sent a letter asking District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to release surveillance video showing the shooting after no charges were filed against the guard during the 72 hours he was in custody.

Courtesy of attorney John Burris

Banko Brown was fatally shot by a security guard at a Walgreens store in San Francisco on April 27.

Surveillance camera video released Monday shows Brown attempting to exit the store before being stopped by a security guard, identified by police as Anthony. Brown then shoves the guard, leading to a physical altercation.

Brown is pinned to the ground by the guard but released after about a minute, video shows. Brown is about to leave but appears to turn and walk toward the security guard, who then shoots him, video shows.

The murder and lack of charges have sparked protests in San Francisco linked to broader debates about crime, poverty, homelessness and criminal justice in the Northern California city.

San Francisco has seen a significant exodus of middle-class residents since the Covid-19 pandemic, and a spate of brazen property crimes and rampant public drug use have created a sense of disorder, as CNN reports in the current special, What About San happened?” did Francisco investigate?”

One such incident was a 2021 day theft at a Walgreens store that was caught on video, in which a suspect casually snatched items off shelves, tossed them into a black bag and exited the store, pointing at the store’s security guard and several onlookers passed. Walgreens said at the time this “blatant retail theft” was an ongoing problem at its stores, although a company executive said earlier this year “maybe we cried too much” over the issue.

As part of the backlash, progressive prosecutor Chesa Boudin was removed from office last year by a 55% majority. Jenkins was named to succeed him and vowed to “restore accountability and consequence to our criminal justice system,” saying this is the moment to “take back our streets.”

San Francisco District Attorney’s Office

Surveillance camera video shows part of the encounter between Banko Brown (left) and security guard Michael Anthony before Anthony fatally shot Banko.

In his videotaped interview with police, the guard said Brown repeatedly threatened to stab him during the fight.

“I felt like I was in danger. I felt like I was about to be stabbed,” Anthony said.

According to the district attorney’s report, Brown was a transgender man. Anthony went on to describe his state of mind at the moment Brown approached him, using incorrect pronouns.

“And I didn’t know what she was up to, but, uh… turns out her intention was to… try to spit on me, and by that reaction of turning around and coming towards me… that’s when I raised it.” high (movements). with your hands) and then shot once.”

The district attorney’s report states that self-defense applies when a person has a reasonable belief that they are in imminent danger of being killed or seriously injured.

“There is no evidence that Anthony’s fear was genuine,” the report said.

However, Burris, the attorney for Brown’s family, said he would soon be filing a lawsuit in the case.

“I watched the tape and looked at it pretty closely, and I think that shooting was unjustified,” he told CNN.

“The family is very concerned that no prosecution has taken place, particularly the father and mother, and they want the matter escalated to the Attorney General’s Office for consideration.”

Aaron Peskin, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, said he is asking the Attorney General and the US Department of Justice to review the case. He told CNN affiliate KGO that the video worried him.

“There is a distance between them, Banko Brown is unarmed, Banko Brown is outside the store,” he said.

Walgreens issued a statement expressing condolences to Brown’s family.

“The safety of our patients, customers and team members is our top priority and violence of any kind will not be tolerated in our branches,” the company said. “We take the matter seriously and are cooperating with the local authorities.”

The post Banko Brown: San Francisco safety guard won’t be charged in deadly capturing of suspected Walgreens shoplifter appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

June 7, 2022Updated: June 7, 2022 7:34 am

A fatal crash led to a brutal morning commute in San Francisco Tuesday morning.

MediaNews Group/East Bay Times via Getty Images/MediaNews Group via Getty Images

A fatal motorcycle crash in San Francisco early Tuesday impacted traffic on the connector ramps to and from the Bay Bridge, creating a traffic nightmare officials said.

The ramps from southbound 101 to eastbound 80 and from westbound 80 on to southbound 101 remain closed as of 7:30 am

“Lanes are blocked,” officials said. “Expect delays and use alternate routes.”

KCBS Radio described the commute as “brutal” as traffic from Oakland into San Francisco was backed up across the Bay Bridge.

The crash occurred at 3:28 am when a man was thrown from his motorcycle on the Central Freeway southbound 101 to eastbound 80 and landed on top of a moving vehicle westbound 80 to southbound 101, the California Highway Patrol said.

“We’re unsure if it was a solo vehicle collision or if there was another car involved,” CHP spokesperson Mark Andrews said.

The motorcyclist sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, Andrew said.

Check https://511.org/ for real-time traffic and transit updates.

Amy Graff is the news editor for SFGATE. She was born and raised in the Bay Area and got her start in news at the Daily Californian newspaper at UC Berkeley where she majored in English literature. She has been with SFGATE for more than 10 years. You can email her at agraff@sfgate.com.

The post Deadly crash in San Francisco causes ‘brutal’ morning commute appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

OAKLAND (KPIX) — Police in Oakland are investigating a fatal early morning stabbing Sunday in a Lake Merritt neighborhood that has seen multiple homicides in recent months.

Police said a man was stabbed multiple times just after 3 am near 1200 Lakeshore Avenue.

That makes four homicides on the same lakeside street in less than six months.

“I heard a big commotion and I came outside on the balcony and I saw, like, about five people beating up this guy,” said a woman who declined to provide her name for fear of retaliation.

She said the attackers were two women and three men.

“They just were really beating him up, beating him up and, all of a sudden, the women said ‘Oh, let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!’ So they all jumped into a car. The (victim) got up, then he stumbled, then he fell,” she said.

She said the victim had blood all over his chest and that there were other people standing nearby, including a security guard for her condo building. Those witnesses tried to help the victim after the attackers left.

Oakland police said it’s the fourth homicide on this long dead-end street since Nov. 2021. It is unclear what motivated the stabbing. Police said the previous homicides, involving guns, were over robberies.

“Unfortunately, not surprised because there’s been so much of it,” said Michael Ziolkowski, who lives on the block.

“It’s really discouraging sometimes. I still love the neighborhood but I don’t think I would be comfortable sitting on a bench here after dark, honestly,” said neighbor Krista Sumida.

Area residents said they are fearful to leave their home at night. In addition to the four homicides, the East Bay Times reported there have been seven non-fatal shootings in the cul-de-sac since May 2021.

“We need a greater police presence on this cul-de-sac,” Sumida said.

“If (the police) drive through with their lights flashing, that kind of makes a lot of the cars move and get out,” Ziolkowski said.

One neighbor was seen with a large moving truck on the block moving out. He said he was tired of the violence and shootings.

“We’ve had three neighbors just moved out of this building in the last eight months,” Sumida said.

The dead end stretch of Lakeshore Avenue is a popular hang-out spot for young people to park their cars and party at night. Neighbors said that makes those people easy targets for robbers and some of those parties have led to fights and shootings.

“My message to our mayor is to please step up, pull your leaders together and come up with a viable way where we can be safe,” said neighbor Colette McPherson.

Oakland police did not release the stabbing victim’s name. He was in his 30s.

Police were still looking for the suspects.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the OPD Homicide Section at (510) 238-3821 or the TIP LINE at 238-7950.

The post Oakland Police Examine Deadly Stabbing in Troubled Lake Merritt Neighborhood – CBS San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

OAKLAND — A man has been arrested in the fatal highway shooting of Gene Ransom, a basketball star at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1970s and a member of the Cal Athletics hall of fame.

A 25-year-old San Francisco resident, Juan Angel Garcia, was arrested Saturday and could face a murder charge in connection with the shooting Friday evening on Interstate 880 in Oakland, the California Highway Patrol said. It wasn’t known Sunday if Garcia had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

The victim was driving near the Broadway exit when he was shot, causing him to veer his Honda sedan and crash into a guardrail, the highway patrol said in a statement. The man was struck at least once and died in his car, the highway patrol said.

Ransom, 65, was on his way to pick up his girlfriend at a West Oakland train station, said Doug Harris, a former teammate and longtime friend.

Harris told KPIX-TV in San Francisco that the woman waited for ransom for hours, “not knowing that he had been murdered.”

Highway patrol investigators said the victim was likely targeted and the motive appeared to be road rage. Northbound lanes of I-880 were shut for about five hours during the investigation.

Just 5-feet-9-inches (1.8 meters) tall, Ransom was a standout player at Berkeley High School and went on to be a star point guard at Cal in the late 1970s, where he averaged 14.8 points per game and had 356 assists during a three-year career, KPIX said.

“We are shocked to hear the reports that Cal Athletics Hall of Famer Gene Ransom has been identified as a victim in a deadly freeway shooting,” Cal Athletics assistant director of communications Gerrit Van Genderen said in a statement Saturday. “Gene was one of the greatest players in our men’s basketball program’s history and he will be greatly missed.”

Ransom was signed by the Golden State Warriors in 1979 but was cut in the preseason.

Harris said that over the past 20 years he and Ransom had been coaching basketball and working with kids to get them away from gun violence.

“The very thing that we worked so hard for is what took him away. It’s really tough for me as I reflect back,” Harris told KPIX. “Gene was a heroic figure that was loved by everyone.”

Several people have been killed in recent freeway shootings in Oakland. Last month, an Alameda County sheriff’s recruit was fatally shot on Interstate 580 on Jan. 4 as he drove home from the academy. Authorities said David V. Nguyen, 28, was set to graduate from the academy this month.

In November, a 23-month-old toddler from Fremont was killed by a stray bullet while his family traveled south on Interstate 880 in Oakland. Also in November, a passenger in an SUV that was traveling on Interstate 80 in Oakland was killed during a shooting on the freeway near the Bay Bridge toll plaza.

The post San Francisco man arrested in deadly freeway capturing of faculty basketball star appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – San Francisco police on Wednesday released additional details – including a body-worn camera video – relating to a fatal police shooting in the South of Market neighborhood last week.

Chief Bill Scott and other department officials held a virtual town hall on Wednesday, the death of 41-year-old Ajmal Amani, Friday November 19.

CONTINUE READING: Charities and community groups serve hot Thanksgiving meals for those in need

“Without rushing to judge the appropriateness of the violence used in this particular incident, on behalf of all of us in our department, I can express our condolences to Mr. Amani’s family, friends and loved ones for the loss suffered. “Said Scott in town hall.

According to Commander Paul Yep, officers were called to a residential hotel on the 900 block of Folsom Street shortly after 8 a.m. on Friday because a man was holding a knife. The caller said she couldn’t stay on the phone because the man “put a knife in my face”.

When two officers arrived, they found the caller and another victim who said they had also been threatened with a knife. Both victims are said to be employees of the hotel.

Yep said the officers then went to Amani’s room and found a man who matched Amani’s appearance at the end of the hall, who yelled and pointed at the officers before moving back out of sight.

The video shows the officers then going back to the victims and standing in the hallway saying they wanted to speak to Amani.

Yep said at the time that one officer had drawn his department-issued pistol while the second officer was armed with something called a “beanbag weapon.” The first officer then requested additional resources, including a nearby ambulance, as well as a tactical shield that the commander said was compatible with SFPD training.

CONTINUE READING: The wandering Oregon Gray Wolf dies after an epic trek in California

About a minute later, Yep said that Amani then stepped back into the hallway, screaming and brandishing a knife. Then he charged the officers with the knife.

Yep said when Amani got closer, both police officers fired their guns and hit Amani who fell to the ground. Amani was shot four times by the officer with the pistol and three times by the officer with the beanbag bullets.

Videos show officers asking Amani to speak to them, but they continued to keep their distance. Minutes later, more officers with a tactical shield approached Amani and secured the knife. Officers and medical personnel then provided assistance.

Yep said Amani was taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The officer who fired his department-issued firearm was identified at City Hall as Officer John Quinlan, while the officer who fired the beanbag gun was identified as Officer Danny De Leon Garcia.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Amani was a former Afghan interpreter for the US special forces and had to contend with the post-traumatic stress regime. In 2019, Amani was charged with assault and fatality for allegedly slitting a city park ranger with a box cutter.

The newspaper reported that Amani was ordered to undergo a mental diversion, which he completed that year and lived in a hotel room rented by the city.

MORE NEWS: Smash-and-Grab Mob Thwarted in Downtown Palo Alto; 2 suspects arrested

The fatal shootout by an officer is still under investigation.

The post Particulars, Video Emerge In San Francisco Police Deadly Taking pictures Of Ajmal Amani In SoMa Residential Resort – CBS San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Nobody will ever agree on which building in San Francisco looks best, and neither should they. From the city’s oldest surviving structure, the Mission Dolores, to the glass (some say hideous) areas of the Salesforce Tower, the city’s architecture has something for everyone.

Buildings often cited as the most popular – or at least most photographed – of residents include the creepy stick-style Italian William Westerfeld Victorian on the corner of Alamo Square, the Painted Ladies on the other side of the park , the copper-green Sentinel Flatiron Building on Columbus, or even the polarizing Transamerica pyramid that shadows them.

One building that is rarely mentioned but should be at the top of this list (according to this author) is a bewitching Hindu monastery on a quiet residential street in Cow Hollow – the Vedanta Temple. And in addition to its fascinating architecture, the building has a strange, bloody history and claims another title – the first Hindu temple in the western world.

The architecture of the temple at 2963 Webster St. is breathtaking and confusing at the same time, but somehow works. The brick-red minarets on the roof are reminiscent of Russian architecture, which is similar to the gold-domed Russian Orthodox Church in the Richmond District, while the crenellated European castle tower looks almost medieval. Below, the Victorian Queen Anne wood panels and bay windows on the first two floors are much more in line with the block of flats, and the Moorish columns and balconies in between would look more like New Orleans home.

The Vedanta Society, 2963 Webster St., San Francisco, California.

Andrew Chamings

This apparent mishmash of styles was intended, as the Vedanta Society describes the vision on its website, “The various towers, typically Indian, Mughal and Western, are to symbolize the harmony of all religions and the pointed arches and domes the aspiration to the top”. of the spiritual seeker. ”

Vedanta is one of the six systems of Hindu philosophy, and in 1905 the society decided that the first Hindu temple in the United States should be built in San Francisco. At the direction of Swami Trigunatita, who was a student of an Indian Hindu mystic from the 19th century and who spent a few years in San Francisco, the architect Joseph A. Leonard built the first two floors in 1905 years later.

Another visiting student, Swami Vivekananda, said of San Francisco, “If you stand on Market Street and wait for the car while meditating in the hustle and bustle around you, are you calm and peaceful?”

The interior of the temple was designed to bring this calm to the San Franciscans. But in order to attract new believers, the flamboyant towers were supposed to get residents talking about the religion’s new outpost, and those terraced towers filled the skyline when the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition was a few blocks down the hill and that Profile of Hinduism in San Francisco.

The front page of the San Francisco Examiner, December 28, 1914.

San Francisco Examiner

A year earlier, the temple attracted unwanted attention when a deadly bomb attack took place in the monastery. The story goes that Swami Trigunatita held a Sunday service three days after Christmas 1914 when a The former student named Varvara came in with a hatbox under his arm. It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly happened, but according to some reports, the 14-year-old hit the side three times in the monastery and it exploded. According to other reports, the boy fired the explosives at the teacher. The student died on the scene, Trigunatita was seriously injured. Based on the empathy of the religion teacher, he is said to have asked on the way to the hospital: “Where is Varvara, poor guy?” Trigunatita died two weeks later of his injuries.

The Vedanta Society, 2963 Webster St., San Francisco, California.

Andrew Chamings

The bombing was used in the typically racist fashion of the era to stir up fear of the East Temple in the quiet block. The following day, the San Francisco Examiner cited “An Explosion Amidst Occultists” and wrote about how a “mad follower of Vedantic teachings comes into the cult temple with a death rocket hidden in a hat while the service is on.”

This scaremongering and otherness of the new community apparently had its intended effect on the locals. In the 1960s, a man named Walter de Vecchi wrote a memoir about growing up in the Marina as a child, describing the temple as “the greatest, scariest, scariest oddity in all of Cow Hollow”.

“I always tried to forget it!” de Vecchi wrote, adding, “Once during the late afternoon service, a fanatic set off a bomb and the swami died from the trauma a week later. Not even the greatest clown among us ever joked about his strange signs and magical symbols; not even the bravest of us died to step on our haunted, threatening soil. “

The Temple of Vedanta at Webster and Filbert in Cow Hollow, 1915.

Archive / Unknown

This 1915 photo is nominally a commemoration of the fire crew next door celebrating the introduction of cars instead of horses into their outfit, but it’s the weird architecture of the Vedanta Temple leaning against the steam that turns the spotlight on.

The beautiful building on the corner of Webster and Filbert weathered two major earthquakes and a bombing and still functions as a Hindu school today, but apart from its history, it’s worth a visit for the architecture alone, which San Francisco has nothing to do with compare is.

The post As soon as the positioning of a deadly bombing, Outdated Vedanta would be the most lovely constructing in San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.