SAN FRANCISCO — Two people were in custody Monday after a gun battle erupted along the San Francisco Embarcadero waterfront early Sunday night that shot two people near Pier 39 and wounded four others.

Aaron Peskin, head of San Francisco’s District 3, which represents the Waterfront, North Beach and Chinatown areas, told KPIX that police told him that after the incident, which involved gunfire between moving cars, one person arrested and a second person arrested.

The first shooting was reported at around 6:48 p.m. on Beach and Stockton streets across from Pier 39. The second shooting occurred moments later on Embarcadero and Howard streets.

Officers found two people with apparent gunshot wounds who were taken to the hospital. Her current condition is currently unknown, SFPD said.

Raw video: Police are investigating related shootings on the San Francisco waterfront

Officials believe two vehicles may have been involved in the shooting.

A bullet-riddled black SUV with Nevada plates that crashed further south on the Embarcadero at Howard St. was the focus of the police investigation.

Investigating the SF Embarcadero shooting

KPIX

A witness shared a video with KPIX showing a young girl on the ground and officers at the scene tending to her. She said she saw a fierce firefight between two cars and erratic driving before the SUV collided. A video of the scene showed how airbags were deployed in the crashed vehicle.

The police initially did not say how many people were injured in the second shooting. At least one person was injured by broken glass in the arm.

During a late night news briefing, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott gave the update, saying three people were injured by “mistaken shots” from broken glass at the second crime scene in Embarcadero and Howard. These injuries were not life-threatening.

Also, two young girls were hit by one of the cars during the chase and firefight. One of them, a 10-year-old, was taken to hospital but her injuries were not life-threatening. The second, a 16-year-old girl, was unharmed.

Scott also confirmed that one of the two shooting victims who were injured in the first exchange of fire suffered non-life-threatening injuries and the second was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police reached the first scene within four minutes of receiving reports of gunfire. Scott said the shooting was a deliberate incident and not an accident.

Authorities are asking anyone with information or cellphone video of the shooting to contact police while the investigation continues.

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A man identified by police as 44-year-old Omar Pope stands near a parked car in San Francisco. (Northern California District Court Records)

SAN FRANCISCO — A townsman who lost his brother, son and wife in a series of tragic incidents has been sentenced to 41 months in prison, although he was acquitted of possession of the bullet that killed his wife in January, as of court records emerge.

The story of 44-year-old Omar Pope dates back to last year, when federal prosecutors charged him with two counts: in May 2022, being a felon and possessing a loaded gun, and in December 2021, possession of the bullet his wife killed when the couple fought over a handgun in their home.

Pope took the unusual step of pleading guilty to the May possession charge and bringing the second count to trial. Last January, a grand jury acquitted him of a felon in possession of ammunition, but Pope still faced federal prison time on the gun charge.

On Thursday, US District Judge William Alsup sentenced Pope to 41 months in federal prison, counting the time he has served in prison since his arrest in June 2022.

According to court records, Pope’s arrest was the culmination of a series of tragedies that began in mid-2020 when his brother died of COVID-19. Two months later, in August 2020, his 14-year-old son was killed after a car being driven by a relative struck a truck, court records show. Then, in December 2021, Pope’s 40-year-old wife was shot dead in a house on the 100 block of Dakota Street in San Francisco.

Pope told responding officers that his wife – still distraught over the death of their son – had repeatedly pointed the gun at herself and at Pope and threatened to kill both of them and other family members. He said when he tried to take the gun from her, they argued about it and it exploded. According to court records, she was fatally hit by a bullet and another hit Pope in the hand.

Five months later, in May 2022, Pope was caught with a gun stolen from Hayward, prosecutors said. US prosecutors pleaded for a 57-month sentence, arguing the series of tragedies in Pope’s life should have been a wake-up call and made his subsequent gun ownership even worse.

“Not a lot of criminal convictions. No significant prison sentence. Not the gunshot death of his wife. Not his own gunshot wound. Not the pain and suffering his daughter had to experience from the loss of her mother. None of this stopped Pope from possessing a stolen firearm in May 2022,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

Pope’s attorney, Daniel Blank, argued that the tragedies were devastating for Pope, but pointed out that he claimed responsibility for the gun ownership in May 2022, months before he was tried on the other charges. Blank said in court filings that Pope felt the need to carry a gun for self-protection after surviving the harrowing experience of his wife’s death.

“It was these recent devastating losses, in addition to many previous ones, that led Mr. Pope to spiral into drug addiction and fueled a paranoia that made him feel he needed a firearm for his own protection,” Bank wrote.

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline offers free 24-hour support, information and resources. Reach Lifeline at 988 or 800-273-8255 or visit 988lifeline.org.

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Rabbi Mendel Perl trägt einen Gebetsschal im Schneerson Jewish Center in San Francisco. (Paul Kuroda/Für die Zeiten)

Die Schaufenstersynagoge von Rabbi Bentziyon Pil ist leicht zu übersehen, nur ein Eckladen mit im Schaufenster gestapelten Kisten mit Halwa.

Aber örtliche Staatsanwälte sagen, Dmitri Mishin wusste, dass es ein Sammelplatz für jüdische Emigranten war, die vor Jahrzehnten aus der Sowjetunion geflohen waren, um der religiösen Verfolgung zu entgehen. Er wohnt in der Nähe und ist selbst Russe.

Nach Einbruch der Dunkelheit am 1. Februar haben die Behörden in einer Szene, die auf einem Überwachungsvideo festgehalten wurde, einen Mann identifiziert, als Mishin die unverschlossene Tür aufstieß und den einzigen Gottesdienstraum der Synagoge betrat, wo ein Dutzend Menschen an einem langen, mit Plastik bedeckten Tisch saßen. Pil begrüßte ihn und dachte, der Mann sei gekommen, um sich ihnen anzuschließen.

Innerhalb von Sekunden zog er eine Waffe. Er mühte sich, sie zu spannen, dann begann er zu schießen, zuerst auf die Tora und dann auf die Männer – acht Schüsse, die durch das Aufflackern der Mündung gekennzeichnet waren.

Matthew Finkelstein verlässt das Schneerson Jewish Center, einen langjährigen Treffpunkt für russische Emigranten in San Francisco. (Paul Kuroda / Für die Zeiten)

Es stellte sich heraus, dass die Waffe eine Nachbildung war, die so etwas wie Platzpatronen abfeuerte. Aber das wussten die Männer im Raum nicht.

Der Angriff kam so plötzlich, so unerwartet, dass keiner der Versammelten reagierte. Niemand duckte sich, niemand schrie. Das Überwachungsvideo ging viral. Aber nicht, weil die Gewalt schockierend ist. Stattdessen schauen die Leute zu, weil es fast schon komisch ist, wie ruhig die Gemeindemitglieder wirken.

Natürlich ist an diesem Angriff nichts Humorvolles. Aber solche Vorfälle sind so häufig geworden, dass dieser außerhalb von San Francisco kaum Schlagzeilen machte. Nur ein weiteres mutmaßliches Hassverbrechen in einer wogenden Flut von ihnen, unauffällig ohne zu zählende Todesfälle.

In unserem polarisierten Land, in dem Extremismus zum Mainstream wird, werden wir gegenüber allem außer den ungeheuerlichsten Hasshandlungen desensibilisiert.

Rabbi Bentziyon Pil erhebt die Tora während des Gebets im Schneerson Jewish Center. (Paul Kuroda / Für die Zeiten)

In den letzten Wochen wurde ein Mann beschuldigt, zwei jüdische Männer vor ihren Synagogen in einem überwiegend jüdischen Viertel von Los Angeles erschossen und verletzt zu haben. Er wurde wegen Hassverbrechen des Bundes angeklagt. In New Jersey wurde ein Mann wegen Brandanschlags auf eine Synagoge angeklagt. In Redding in Nordkalifornien und Brownstown Township in Michigan fanden Einwohner antisemitische Flugblätter, die in ihren Häusern zurückgelassen wurden.

Die Geschichte geht weiter

Am 15. Februar wurde ein Mann aus Quincy, Massachusetts, auf Bundesebene angeklagt, weil er angeblich einen Asiaten mit seinem Auto angefahren hatte, nachdem er gesagt hatte: „Geh zurück nach China.“ In derselben Woche wurde in San Francisco ein Mann auf einem Video dabei erwischt, wie er Eier auf eine Asiatin in einem Muni-Bus warf, nachdem er rassistische Beleidigungen geschrien hatte.

Und am Samstag veranstalteten weiße Rassisten einen „Nationalen Tag des Hasses“, der sich an jüdische Menschen richtete und einen Aufruf zum Vandalismus in den sozialen Medien ankündigte.

Das ist alles in ein paar Wochen, und nicht jeder Hassvorfall, den ich finden konnte. Nur wenige machten Schlagzeilen außerhalb der Lokalpresse.

Jacob Hallovany, links, Junior Rabbi Alon Chanukov und Rabbi Bentziyon Pil beten im Schneerson Jewish Center. Die tägliche Anbetung wurde trotz anhaltender Besorgnis über eine kürzlich erfolgte Schießerei fortgesetzt. (Paul Kuroda / Für die Zeiten)

Pil und seine Gefolgsleute waren sich so sicher, dass es niemanden interessieren würde, was mit ihnen passiert war, dass der Schütze keine wirklichen Konsequenzen tragen würde, dass sie in dieser Nacht nicht einmal die Polizei riefen. Stattdessen hoben sie etwas auf, das wie Patronenhülsen aussah, und steckten es in eine Müllschublade.

::

Unter der Krempe seines schwarzen Hutes hat Pil ein Lächeln, das seine Augen erreicht, lebhaft und freundlich.

Und müde. Seit der Schießerei wecken ihn böse Träume.

Rabbi Bentziyon Pil steht vor dem Schneerson Jewish Center. Eine kürzliche Schießerei hat die Gemeindemitglieder in Angst um ihre Sicherheit und die Zukunft der Synagoge zurückgelassen. (Paul Kuroda / Für die Zeiten)

Als Kind in Samarkand, einer alten Stadt an der Seidenstraße in Usbekistan, war Pil Teil einer unterirdischen Synagoge. Jude zu sein war nicht sicher, und an jedem Schabbat ging seine Familie in ein anderes Haus, um zu beobachten, und tat so, als wären die Versammlungen Geburtstage oder Partys.

Er erinnert sich an Geschichten von Ältesten, die wegen ihres Glaubens in sibirische Gefangenenlager geschickt wurden, und wegen der anhaltenden Angst, dass irgendwo ein KGB-Spion in ihrer Mitte sei. Als er 15 war, zog seine Familie nach Israel, später kam er zum Studieren nach New York in die jüdische Enklave Crown Heights.

Eines Tages sahen sein Schwager und der Bruder seines Schwagers ein Mädchen auf einer Hochzeit und dachten, sie würde gut zu Pil passen, weil sie nie aufhörte zu tanzen. Pil liebt es zu tanzen. Mattie war ihr Name, und sie dachte, Pil würde auch gut zusammenpassen – sie teilten Werte, sagte sie, und den Wunsch, anderen zu helfen.

Reuven Katz betet im Schneerson Jewish Center in San Francisco. (Paul Kuroda / Für die Zeiten)

Sie machten den Hof, heirateten und zogen 1983 nach San Francisco, wo es keine Synagoge für russische Juden gab, sagte Pil. Also gründeten sie eine Gemeinschaft außerhalb ihres Hauses, lebten oben und hielten unten Schabbat-Abendessen ab. Während sie Kinder bekamen – es sind 10 von ihnen –, gaben sie Bedürftigen Essen und schufen eine Verbindung für verstreute Einwanderer, die sich lange isoliert gefühlt hatten.

Manchmal lief die Schlange vor der Tür, weil es nicht genug Platz gab, um drinnen zu sitzen. Den Nachbarn hat es nicht gefallen. Vor dreizehn Jahren zogen sie nach einigen weiteren Stationen an diesen Ort.

Es ist klein, so groß wie ein Schulklassenzimmer, mit drei Kristallkronleuchtern, die besser zu einem Ballsaal passen, und einem verblichenen Blumenteppich darunter. Die Thora ist auf einer Seite; Auf der anderen Seite steht der Tisch, an dem die Männer saßen, als der Schütze kam, der nächste Stuhl nur einen Fuß von der Tür entfernt.

Der Bezirksstaatsanwalt von San Francisco hat “Null Toleranz gegenüber Hass” versprochen, als er Strafanzeige gegen einen Mann erstattete, der beschuldigt wurde, während eines kürzlichen Gottesdienstes im Schneerson Jewish Center mit Platzpatronen geschossen zu haben. (Paul Kuroda / Für die Zeiten)

Mit seiner Unordnung – Hunderte von Büchern, zwei Waschbecken aus Steinimitat, eine Kaffeestation, eine Boombox, ein Wäschekorb, gestapelte Stühle – ist es ein einladender Raum, der von einem Gemeinschaftsgefühl durchdrungen ist. Und Heiligkeit. Trotz seiner Bescheidenheit hat es die rätselhafte Heiligkeit eines Gotteshauses, ein Gefühl, dass manchmal eine Macht vorbeischaut, die größer ist als die Menschen.

Pil stellt sicher, dass jeden Tag, morgens und abends, ein Minjan – ein Quorum von 10 Männern, das für orthodoxe Juden notwendig ist, um bestimmte Gebete zu halten – anwesend ist. Es ist keine leichte Aufgabe, zweimal täglich 10 Männer zusammenzutreiben, und Pil ist bekannt für seine unerbittlichen Telefonanrufe.

Aber die Verlässlichkeit dieses Minjans macht die Gemeinde über ihre regulären Mitglieder hinaus lebenswichtig. Menschen kommen von überall her, um an gemeinsamen Gebeten teilzunehmen, wie zum Beispiel der Ehrung der Toten oder dem Birkat HaGomel, das rezitiert wird, nachdem man sich von einer Krankheit erholt oder eine gefährliche Reise hinter sich hat.

Selbst nach der Schießerei fand Pil seine 10.

Aaron Seruya, ein Gemeindemitglied aus Gibraltar, ist oft einer von ihnen. „Es liegt an uns, uns zu wehren und positiv zu denken und mehr Vertrauen in Gott zu haben“, sagte er.

Das ist die Stärke, die Mattie Pil und der Rabbi in 40 Jahren ihrer Geduld und Liebe aufgebaut haben.

Das hätte der Schütze mit seiner Spielzeugpistole brechen und hassen können.

::

Nach einem kürzlichen Angriff hat das Schneerson Jewish Center staatliche Mittel beantragt, die helfen würden, einen Wachmann und andere Sicherheitsmaßnahmen zu bezahlen. Aber das Gebäude mit seinen großen Glasfenstern und einem Hauptausgang bleibt verwundbar. (Paul Kuroda / Für die Zeiten)

Am Tag nach der Schießerei rief Junior-Rabbi Alon Chanukov die Polizei.

Chanukov, 35, ist jünger als der Großteil der Gemeinde. Er wuchs im Chabad of Poway nördlich von San Diego auf, wo am letzten Passahtag 2019 ein Mann mit einem AR-15 eine Frau tötete und drei weitere verletzte, darunter den Rabbiner. Chanukov kannte die getötete Frau.

Als er von der Schießerei hier hörte, war er so aufgebracht, dass er sein Morgengebet nicht verrichten konnte. Gegen Rat veröffentlichte er das Überwachungsmaterial der shul. Er wollte, dass der Schütze gefasst wird, um sicherzustellen, dass er nicht „wie ein Nichts behandelt wird“, sagte er.

Und am Freitagabend nach der Schießerei erhielt die Schul eine gute Nachricht, gerade als sie begann, den Schabbat zu feiern. Ein jüdischer Polizist kam vorbei, um ihnen mitzuteilen, dass Mischin in Gewahrsam sei. „Also könnt ihr beruhigt sein“, erinnert sich Seruya, dass er gesagt hat.

Sie taten es eine Weile, bis sie Mishins Social-Media-Feed sahen, wo er ein Bild von sich in einer Nazi-Uniform und ein Video von etwas gepostet hatte, das aussah, als hätte er einige Tage vor dem Angriff etwas außerhalb der Synagoge verbrannt. Es ließ sie keinen Zweifel daran, dass sie ins Visier genommen wurden.

San Francisco Dist. Atty. Brooke Jenkins versprach in einer Pressemitteilung zu dem Fall eine „Nulltoleranz für Hass“ und erhob Anklage wegen Hassverbrechen gegen Mishin. Er ist mit zwei Straftaten wegen Eingriffen in die Religionsausübung und sechs Vergehensfällen konfrontiert, die die Verletzung des Ziehens oder Zeigens einer nachgeahmten Schusswaffe beinhalten. Bei einer Verurteilung drohen ihm laut Staatsanwaltschaft bis zu 10 Jahre.

Mishin bekannte sich bei seiner Anklageerhebung nicht schuldig. Es gibt Fragen zu seiner psychischen Gesundheit, und eine vorläufige Anhörung ist für Freitag angesetzt. Pil und seine Gefolgsleute befürchten, dass er freigelassen wird und sich an ihnen rächen – vielleicht mit einer echten Waffe.

Die Schule hat staatliche Mittel beantragt, die nach Poway eingerichtet wurden, um einen Wachmann und andere Sicherheitsmaßnahmen zu bezahlen. Aber die Wahrheit ist, dass dieses Gebäude mit seinen großen Glasfenstern und einem Hauptausgang niemals sicher sein wird. Tschanukow kann nicht mehr mit dem Rücken zur Tür sitzen und sich Sorgen machen, wer eintreten wird.

Die Gemeinde möchte umziehen und hat GoFundMe gestartet, um die 400.000 Dollar zu sammeln, die sie ihrer Meinung nach benötigt, aber Chanukov weiß nicht, ob dies geschehen wird. Die Menschen, die hier beten, haben bescheidene Mittel.

„Wir haben Mark Zuckerberg nicht als einen unserer Spender“, sagte er.

In der Zwischenzeit geht das Leben der Schul weiter. Der Minjan trifft sich, die Frauen kochen für den Schabbat. Die Männer rauchen auf dem Bürgersteig davor, die Kerzen werden am Freitagabend angezündet.

„Juden geben nicht auf“, sagte Mattie Pil.

Sie wissen nicht, ob es jemanden interessiert, was hier passiert ist, aber Mattie hofft es.

„Es geht nicht um Gott, es geht um Einheit“, sagte sie mir. „Dass wir eins sind.“

Wirklich, die Sorge sollte sich nicht nur um Mishin drehen, nicht in diesem chaotischen Moment, in dem Hass allgegenwärtig ist. Es geht darum, was die Mishins ausmacht, was es ihnen ermöglicht, unbemerkt oder unkontrolliert zu bleiben, bis die Waffe, echt oder nicht, in ihren Händen ist. Den meisten von uns ist Hass nicht gleichgültig, und wir spüren, wie er wächst. Wir analysieren es einfach in unseren eigenen Gedanken – Rassismus, Frauenfeindlichkeit, Anti-Trans, Anti-Asiat, Antisemit – und sparen unsere Empörung für das, was uns am nächsten kommt.

Aber Hass in jeglicher Form ist nicht nur eine Bedrohung für Menschenleben. Es bedroht die Demokratie, die wir alle teilen.

Und wie Rabbi Pil mir sagte, das ist das Einzige, was wir nicht tolerieren können.

Diese Geschichte erschien ursprünglich in der Los Angeles Times.

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Nearly 400 firearms were collected Saturday at a gun buyback event in South San Francisco sponsored by numerous government and law enforcement agencies.

A spokesman for the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department said Saturday that hundreds of people turned in guns — no questions asked — and received $100 in cash for handguns, shotguns and rifles and $200 in cash for assault weapons and so-called “ghost weapons.” had.

The event, presented by San Mateo County, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department, the South San Francisco and San Bruno Police Departments, and Citizens for San Mateo County Gun Buyback, hosted the South San Francisco Anonymous Gun Buyback Event.

A total of 392 firearms were collected, including seven assault weapons and 12 “ghost guns”, the latter of which cannot be traced.

Another weapon buyback event is planned for later this year.

The post Almost 400 firearms turned in at South San Francisco gun buyback | Native Information appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Nearly 400 firearms were collected Saturday at a gun buyback event in South San Francisco sponsored by numerous government and law enforcement agencies.

A San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson said Saturday that hundreds of people surrendered weapons — no questions asked — receiving $100 cash for handguns, shotguns and rifles and $200 cash for assault weapons and so-called “ghost guns”.

The event presented by San Mateo County, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department, the South San Francisco and San Bruno police departments and the Citizens for San Mateo County Gun Buyback, hosted the anonymous gun buyback event in South San Francisco.

A total of 392 firearms were collected, including seven assault weapons and 12 “ghost guns,” the latter of which are untraceable.

Another gun buyback event is planned for later this year.

The post Almost 400 firearms turned in at South San Francisco gun buyback | Native Information appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Just days after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, a normally complacent American public rocked out of its typical c’est la vie daze regarding the country’s addiction to firearms, Democratic lawmakers have already begun readying a host of bills aimed at curbing gun violence — even as the odds the proposed legislation actually makes it into law grow slimmer by the hour.

Speaking at an anti-gun violence event in San Francisco on Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to bring an assault weapon ban to Congress, telling attendees that “we will be having a hearing and marking up the assault weapon ban” as early as next week. Pelosi’s announcement came just before the House Judiciary Committee prepared Thursday to take up a slate of additional gun control measures, dubbed the “Protecting our Kids Act,” which includes new federal trafficking laws and boosts the age to purchase certain weapons from 18 to 21.

In his opening remarks, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler listed the most recent mass shootings — from the racist massacre in Buffalo, New York, to the shooting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday evening — before citing the Talmudic axiom that “whoever takes one life it’s as if he kills the entire world.”

“Whoever saves one life,” Nadler continued, “it’s as if he saves the entire world.”

Even if Pelosi and Nadler deliver on their promises to bring these new gun control measures to a full vote — and despite overwhelming public support for new gun control laws — it’s unlikely that Senate Democrats will be able to pass the bills should they reach the upper chamber , where Republican opposition is likely to block the necessary 60 votes. While President Biden has claimed that “everybody’s getting more rational about” an assault weapon ban (“At least, that’s my hope and prayer,” he added), a separate, bipartisan Senate group is reportedly working on its own response to the Uvalde massacre , which includes strengthening background checks and red flag laws. The bipartisan group is not, it seems, discussing actually banning certain types of guns, which should give you a sense of what the upper chamber sees as both a priority, and as having even a remotely likely chance of passing.

Meanwhile, while Democrats make their likely doomed — albeit well-intentioned — moves to pass long overdue gun control legislation, the Supreme Court is poised to deliver a ruling that will likely dramatically expand the rules governing who can carry handguns and where.

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA — United Playaz will host its annual gun buyback event in San Francisco this Saturday.

The event will run from 8 am to noon at 1038 Howard St.

Representatives from the mayor’s office, the San Francisco Police Department and community organizations will safely accept guns from people who no longer need them, according to the state Attorney General’s Office.

People turning in guns will be offered $100 cash for handguns, rifles and shotguns, as well as $200 cash for automatic weapons.

United Playaz is a San Francisco-based violence prevention and youth development organization, according to its website.

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SANTA CLARA (BCN) – Police from New Valley High School in Santa Clara found a pistol that resulted in the arrest of two students Thursday.

At around 10 a.m., two students were drawn into a fight that was separated from staff. It was at this point that staff noticed that one of the students was handing a bystander an item believed to be a weapon, according to an email sent to parents from the Santa Clara Unified School District at 2 p.m. would.

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The two arguing students and the bystander, also a student, were taken to the school office while the police arrived on campus.

The district said police arrived within three minutes, searched the students and found a handgun.

Two students were then arrested for illegal bringing weapons on campus.

“The situation was dealt with quickly and safely,” wrote the district in an email, “and the school resumed normal operations at 10.30 am.”

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Students were in class at the time of the brawl and stayed there while police searched and arrested the students, the district wrote.

The district used the case not only to remind parents of the consequences of bringing a weapon, which could lead to arrest or deportation; but also the mental health resources available to students and their families.

“News like this may be of heightened concern, especially after the recent mass shootings in Michigan,” the district wrote to parents. “While we have implemented security measures and have a strong partnership with our local law enforcement and school staff, we cannot underestimate the toll we all have on the safety of our school.”

They directed students who may have been affected by the case to use CareSolace – an online resource with a live multilingual care concierge to connect people to counseling services.

Students and parents can also contact their school location for a wellness check-in with the district’s clinical staff.

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On the night of 3 September 2020, Sonya Mitchell got a call as she was leaving work. Her 23-year-old son, Daimon “Dada” Ferguson, had been shot in a drive-by outside his older sister’s home.

In the months before, Mitchell, 56, had been watching reports of shootings in her hometown of Vallejo, in the San Francisco Bay Area, with increasing concern. There was the shooting at a birthday party on 9 June that killed two women and injured a 10-year-old. Three separate shootings had rocked the city on 20 August, including a double homicide that left a 25-year-old man and his 24-year-old girlfriend dead in a car with their infant son.

Mitchell rushed to the house, expecting a crime scene, police cars and ambulances. Instead she found a group of bystanders, the car the shooters had crashed into the garage of a nearby house, and a man carrying her bleeding son. “What the fuck is going on? Where are the first responders?” Mitchell thought.

links to other pieces in the Guns and Lies series

Mitchell drove her son to the ambulance entrance of Sutter Solano medical center, but wasn’t let in because he didn’t arrive in an ambulance. She headed to the front of the hospital next, banging on the locked sliding doors.

“He couldn’t even talk at this point, and when I saw the blood I started banging my purse on the door and tried to break the glass,” Mitchell recalled. She pleaded with hospital security officers to help her son, who was bleeding on the pavement. Eventually a security guard came out with a wheelchair to take Ferguson inside. An hour later, a doctor told Mitchell that her son had died. She passed out.

Daimon Ferguson, Sonya Mitchell’s son, was one of 456 people violently killed across the greater San Francisco Bay Area last year. Photograph: Marissa Leshnov/Marissa Leshnov for The Guardian

Daimon Ferguson was one of 456 people violently killed across the greater San Francisco Bay Area last year, according to data reported to California’s department of justice.

Like other major cities in the US, the area witnessed a surge in gun violence during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Homicides across the 12 counties that make up the greater region rose 25% in 2020, compared with the previous year, a new Guardian analysis of census data and state homicide data shows. That’s 114 more homicides than the year before.

A detailed analysis shows that homicide rates across the region increased in nine out of 12 counties, but that the rise did not affect all cities and residents equally.

• The surge was most pronounced in cities that have historically borne the majority of the region’s gun violence, with Vallejo, Oakland and Stockton seeing the biggest rises.

• The increase hardly touched the Bay Area’s more affluent, suburban areas, where homicide rates barely increased.

• The overwhelming majority of victims were Black and Latino, with Black residents dying in homicides more than any other racial group.

• And the surge came after the region witnessed more than a decade of steady declines in gun homicide rates, a decrease that lasted right up until the onset of the pandemic.

Change in homicide rates in Bay area counties from 2015-2019 to 2020.

Most of the homicides were committed with guns, used not in mass casualty events that make the nightly national news, but in daily shootings on the region’s blocks, streets and in its parks.

Mitchell says that her son was a lifelong mama’s boy who she loved spoiling. He had played football throughout his childhood and adolescence and despite the stereotypes that follow young Black men who are murdered in their communities, her son had love for everyone around him, she said.

It feels like we’re losing groundSonya Mitchell

“It feels like we’re losing ground,” she said about the rise in shootings in her community. After several more peaceful years, Vallejo families are once again carrying an outsized burden of gun violence in the region. “We’re losing lives daily from Covid and murders and everything else that’s going on.”

More than a data point

The Guardian analyzed three years of homicide data reported by police and sheriff’s departments to the state of California, numbers that do not include police killings or deaths the state classifies as “negligent homicides”.

The analysis shows that most impacted by the surge in homicides in 2020 were three cities that have historically been hit hard by gun violence.

In Oakland, homicides rose from 78 in 2019 to 102 in 2020, the highest single-year increase in the region. The data shows Stockton, where the Bay Area borders the Central Valley, saw 55 homicides in 2020, compared to 35 in 2019. Vallejo, where Sonya Mitchell lives, recorded 27 homicides in 2020, compared to 12 the year before.

Across counties, differences were stark. Alameda county, where Oakland is located, saw 46 more homicides in 2020 than 2019. In Solano county, where Vallejo is, there were 19 more homicides in 2020 than 2019. Stockton’s San Joaquin county counted 32 more people killed than in the year before.

But the surge hardly touched two of the most affluent counties in the Bay Area. Napa and Marin counties recorded just one homicide apiece.

Map comparing the percentage increase in the number of homicides in the Bay Area in 2020 with the 2015 to 2019 average

Racial disparities in the burden posed by gun violence were stark. The overwhelming majority of homicide victims in the region in 2020 were Black and Latino, with 194 Black victims among the 450 killed and 150 Latino. Of the 345 Black and Latino victims, 293 were male. Their ages ranged from one all the way to 94.

That means that the Bay Area’s Black residents are still more at risk of succumbing to gun violence than members of any other racial group. Black residents make up just 5% of the region’s population, according to 2020 census data, but more than a third of its homicide victims.

The racial discrepancies were apparent even in the region’s safest counties. San Mateo county, home to the millionaire-machine of Silicon Valley, saw homicides go up in 2020, but the rise was not equally distributed. The county of 770,000 people recorded 16 homicides. Just one victim was white, despite most of the county’s residents being white.

Santa Clara county, where Google is based, reported 52 homicides among almost two million residents. At least 32 of the victims, or more than half, were Latino, though Latinos make up 25% of the county’s population.

One of the last victims in the Bay Area in 2020 was 19-year-old André Robinson Jr. André was the 99th homicide victim in Oakland that year, but his mother LaTanya wants him to be remembered as more than a data point. “André was a brother, a son, an uncle and friend to many. He was strong, honest, independent and dependable. He was more than just No 99.”

LaTanya affectionately refers to André Jr as her “Big Sun”, and a dog-loving prankster who was always able to lift her spirits. “He was a special kid and God blessed me with him.”

LaTanya and André Robinson wear necklaces in memory of their son André Robinson Jr, who was shot and killed on 8 November. Photograph: Marissa Leshnov/Marissa Leshnov for The Guardian

On the morning of 8 November, André’s girlfriend called LaTanya in hysterics. “André just got shot!” the teen cried into the phone.

LaTanya and her husband rushed to the Oakland home where André had brought his girlfriend breakfast and was shot in the back. LaTanya and her husband, André Robinson Sr, rushed to the home and pulled up at the same time as the ambulance.

The communities that were hit worst were the communities that were underserved in the first placeTashante McCoy

LaTanya’s husband briefly saw the couple’s son before he was carried into the ambulance and driven to Oakland’s Highland hospital. As André Jr was being pulled out of the ambulance, LaTanya told her son that she loved him and that she needed him to stay strong and fight. Less than an hour later, when LaTanya and André Sr learned their son had died, it felt like someone “ripped her heart out through the bottom of her stomach”.

Impact of the pandemic

The rise in gun violence in the Bay Area mirrored trends seen across the US. Nationwide, homicides leapt by nearly 30% from 2019 to 2020, according to FBI crime data released in September. About 77% of the killings involved guns and increases were found in every region in the US. California recorded 2,202 homicides, compared to 1,679 the year before – a 31% increase, according to the Guardian’s analysis of state homicide data.

The full dynamics behind the surge in shootings are still unclear, though researchers, violence prevention practitioners and law enforcement have all offered elements, including economic distress, the breakdown of social pillars in the community, and slowdowns in the courts.

Bar graph comparing firearm-related homicides to all other homicides in California, as well as in specific counties: Alameda, San Joaquin, Solano, Contra Costa and San Mateo

California was the first state in the nation to impose shelter-in-place protocols and one of the first to close schools to curb the spread of Covid-19. The fallout from record unemployment to student’s struggles to succeed under remote learning was almost immediately felt by majority Black and Latino communities. Achievement gaps widened as Black and Latino students fell off district radars, giving young people ample time without the supervision and structure that schools provide. Black and Latino people are also simultaneously overrepresented in fields such as food service where job losses were steep and essential sectors such as healthcare and grocery stores where infections and workplace stress were high.

The pandemic further exacerbated issues such as unemployment and housing insecurity that drive gun violence among lower-income Black and Latino residents, factors that added layers of stress onto already fragile communities. Meanwhile, the death of George Floyd reignited anger over police brutality and police killings, further eroding trust in law enforcement in some communities.

Chart compares Bay Area homicide rates by race and compares the 2015-2019 average to 2020

“There’s a lot we’re still teasing apart about how gun violence was impacted by the pandemic. But we do know higher rates of poverty, unemployment, police contact, and housing and food insecurity were there before [Covid-19],” said Dr Shani Buggs, a researcher with the Violence Prevention Research program at UC Davis who analyzes grassroots violence interruption. “Then the pandemic severed contacts to social safety nets as these health and social consequences of systemic racism worsened.”

“The communities that were hit worst were the communities that were underserved in the first place,” said Tashante McCoy, a manager with Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice and a violence prevention and victim advocate in Stockton.

McCoy had formed her own collective for mothers who’d lost their children to gun violence after her cousin was murdered in 2012. Over the years, it grew from seven people meeting for a somber Mother’s Day dinner in 2014 to an organization that came together for paint parties, wine tasting events and meditation sessions that attracted dozens.

The group was one of several gun violence prevention and victim support organizations launching in Stockton around that time. In fact, in the years before the pandemic, the Bay Area had become an incubator for innovative prevention programs.

The programs operated on city streets, in community centers, in urgent care units and public school campuses, often with little to no involvement from law enforcement, and over the past decade they have gained acknowledgement from experts and officials in playing an important role in driving homicide numbers to decade-lows.

In Richmond and Stockton, prevention workers with Advance Peace, many of them formerly incarcerated people, worked with the small population of the city that was most at-risk of being shot or shooting someone else and provided mentorship, work opportunities, and stipends. In Oakland, staff with Youth Alive! were showing up at the hospital bedsides of young people suffering from gunshot wounds, offering them resources to change their lives and exit the cycle of violence.

A 2019 Guardian analysis of homicide data in the Bay Area from 2007-2017 found that while homicides and gun violence remained persistent issues, homicides had gone down by 30% across the 12 counties of the region. Black residents, who had historically been overrepresented among homicide victims, experienced the most dramatic drop.

André Robinson Sr shows a tattoo on his arm in memory of his late son André Robinson Jr. Photograph: Marissa Leshnov/Marissa Leshnov for The Guardian

The decrease held in the years leading up to the pandemic. A fresh analysis of homicide data shows that the decline continued in 2018, when the region recorded 309 homicides, and in 2019, when it recorded 336. That increase from 2018 to 2019 pales in comparison to the almost 114 more homicides that would happen in the region in 2020.

“A lot was born in that time,” McCoy said about 2018 and 2019. “There was the inception of a lot of programs, and some of that contributed for sure to a downward trend in gun violence.”

You used to be able to go into the community and mediate. Covid messed with what we were able to doParis Davis

“Everything was down, from shootings to robberies,” recalled Paris Davis, the manager of Youth Alive!’s youth intervention program, who joined the organization after being shot in the stomach in 2017. “That time showed that our approach was working.”

The pandemic presented unprecedented challenges for the organizations’ models. As workplaces, schools, and community centers where violence interrupters were sure to find their program participants emptied, they were forced to switch to virtual meetings and regular phone calls. Many took on additional roles, delivering food, masks and hand sanitizer to homes.

“It had a hard impact professionally. You used to be able to go into the community and mediate. Covid messed with what we were able to do,” said Davis. “We had to start supporting clients virtually. But sometimes it wasn’t best for a client when they needed to see someone in person.”

Stockton’s McCoy said interventionists were still showing up and providing for victims as best as they could. “There’s an unspoken part of being a violence interventionist in a time like this: we can’t not come in there and hug people.” But in doing so, they were sometimes putting their lives on the line.

‘An endless cycle’

The increase in shootings have led to fresh fears about a “violent crime wave”, anxieties that were readily amplified by right-leaning groups and conservative media.

But even with the pandemic surge, homicides across the Bay Area have not reached the highs of the late 1990s and mid-2000s. And many neighborhoods have been minimally affected.

Still, police unions and tough-on-crime officials, too, have pointed at the rise to argue that efforts to shift away funding from law enforcement agencies was misguided. Others have held it up as an argument for officials to look outside of law enforcement, and scale up community-driven solutions that tackle the root causes of violence.

Responding to the surge, Joe Biden encouraged states and localities to use $350bn from the federal Covid relief package to hire more police. But he also earmarked $5bn in his infrastructure bill proposal to bolster and sustain community-based gun violence prevention, the most high-profile recognition of the importance of such programs in combating gun violence deaths.

This was a public health and safety system failureTashante McCoy

“I’m just as sad about this increase as I have been the years before, even when there were just over 70 murders,” said Antoine Towers, chair of Oakland’s Violence Prevention Coalition. “It just shows the endless cycle hasn’t been addressed yet. Those same conflicts were going on before the pandemic.”

Towers had been sounding the alarm about how generational differences and unaddressed trauma among those most impacted by violence, especially youth, was fueling gun violence in Oakland in the years before the pandemic hit. And even when the city was being celebrated for managing to drive down homicide rates, he knew that people were still struggling under the weight of social inequality and long term trauma.

Towers’ organization still isn’t funded through the city but with local schools reopening, he’s being called on by teachers to mediate tense, potentially fatal, conflicts between students. “I get calls from schools, and community members. And I’ll tell them, ‘I’m on my way.’”

McCoy, the Stockton activist, has continued pushing officials and decision makers to prioritize addressing the roots of violence. “This was a public health and safety system failure,” she said. “If we’re ever gonna create safety, you can’t do that without addressing the core needs of the community,” she said. “There’s a lack of investment in these communities and our system fails to fund essential services that are held by people who understand the dynamics of these areas.

‘No one knows this pain but us’

Data from major cities across the US suggests that homicides have continued to rise in 2021, though the increases were smaller than in 2020.

Since her son’s death, Sonya Mitchell has grown close with other grieving mothers. “The death of my son doesn’t affect just me, it affects so many other Black women who I’ve seen suffer; mothers who are my friends and we all buried our sons in 2020. We have to be there for each other because no one knows this pain but us.”

Sonya Mitchell holds a necklace containing a portrait of ‘DaDa’ Ferguson. Photograph: Marissa Leshnov/Marissa Leshnov for The Guardian

Her son’s last hours continue to haunt her. “I wish I could have sat on that curb with him, I didn’t know he was gonna die,” she said. “My son deserved to die hearing his mom telling him she loved him. Instead, he died hearing his mom scream for help. I should have never had to beat on a window and scream, ‘Let me in!’”

Sutter Health said in a statement it disagreed with Mitchell’s characterization of events. “Sutter Health extends our deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones of Mr Ferguson,” Sutter Health said. “Our care teams strive to deliver the highest levels of quality care possible.”

I have better days, but never good days. I just lost a piece of meLaTanya Robinson

Mitchell believes that the high blood pressure and other ailments she’s suffered from since her son’s death will eventually kill her. But she says she doesn’t mind that outcome, if it means she can see her son in heaven.

“I already know where my health is going and I’m not scared,” Mitchell said. “I wanna stay here for my daughters and grandkids, but my heart’s too broken. I used to have hella life, but I just don’t anymore.”

In December 2020, three months after Daimon Ferguson was killed outside of his sister’s home, Vallejo police arrested one man and two women in connection with the slaying.

LaTanya Robinson says she hasn’t had a good day since her son was slain. She’s been trying to move out of Oakland and has become more protective of her 13-year old son. She admits that she rarely lets him out of the house, except to football practice.

LaTanya Robinson reveals a tattoo in memory of her late son André Robinson Jr. Photograph: Marissa Leshnov/Marissa Leshnov for The Guardian

The entire family is receiving counseling and Robinson and her husband try to speak about their son and her family’s quest for justice at local rallies. The family is organizing a march in Oakland in November to commemorate André’s death. They still don’t know who killed him.

“I have better days, but never good days. I just lost a piece of me so I’m trying to get back to being me,” Robinson said. “I’ve been trying to speak at rallies and find a way to deal with it. I know my son’s death is gonna bring something positive and I’m gonna get justice one day.”

• The analysis of California homicide data looks at the year of each incident that caused the death, which can differ from when the victim died or when it was reported to the FBI. In addition, the analysis estimates city-by-city data by looking at the police jurisdiction that reported the homicide

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LOS ANGELES (AP) – Larry Elder’s former fiancé said Thursday that the Conservative radio talk show host, now running for governorship in California, showed her a gun during a heated argument in 2015.

Elder, widely regarded as the leader of the Republicans running to succeed Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom in next month’s recall election, made a statement saying, “I’ve never thrown a gun at anyone.” Elder , who aspires to become California’s first black governor, noted that he grew up in South Los Angeles, an area with high levels of violent crime.

“I know exactly how destructive this type of behavior is,” he said.

Alexandra Datig’s accusation, first reported by Politico, comes less than four weeks until the election on September 14th and at a time when the postal ballot papers have already reached the voters. Elder said he intended to “focus on the issues” that inspired the recall of Republicans who were angry with Newsom’s progressive policies and handling of the pandemic.

His campaign said he was planning weekend rallies.

• KPIX 5 Interview: Governor Newsom on upcoming recall election, state COVID response

Datig, 51, a longtime Los Angeles resident, said she worked on Elders Show and they lived together during their 18-month love affair from 2013 to 2015. A letter and other records from Datig to The Associated Press – including a 6th 2015 email writing about the breakdown of their engagement – outlined a portrait of an emotionally abusive relationship in which Elder routinely used medical marijuana in excess.

Datig claims Elder got high during the 2015 argument and went to a cabinet where he kept his weapon “and made sure it was in my sight”.

“He didn’t point it at me, but he wanted to make sure I knew he was looking,” to see if it was loaded, she told the AP.

Threatening another person with a gun could constitute a criminal offense, but Datig said she never reported it to the police.

Elder did not specifically address the cannabis use claim in the questions AP asked of his campaign. His testimony in response to Datig’s allegations of abuse was broadly based on “lewd allegations.”

“It is precisely because of this kind of politics of personal destruction that people do not come into public life. I will not honor that with an answer – it is below me, ”Elder wrote. A short time later he tweeted: “They come up to me with every dirty trick because they know what’s coming on September 14th.”

Datig supports one of Elder’s Republican rivals, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer. Earlier this week, Faulconer began criticizing Elder and specifically questioning his attitudes towards women. He noted, among other things, that Elder had written that employers should be able to ask women if and when they plan to become pregnant.

“Larry Elder has neither the judgment nor the character to run our state,” Faulconer said in response to Datig’s allegations.

Another Republican in the running, State Representative Kevin Kiley, said in a statement that he found Datig’s claims worrying.

“I believe that every woman who comes up deserves to be heard and Mrs Datig’s deeply troubling report should be treated with the utmost seriousness. Mr. Elder should be given every opportunity to comment, ”he said.

In a televised debate on Thursday evening with Faulconer, Kiley and his GOP colleague John Cox, however, the topic never came up.

• ALSO READ: Bay Area Recall Candidate runs on Anti-Mask platform

Elder took part in the race in July, and Datig said she had waited until now to come forward because at first she didn’t think he would be competitive.

“I didn’t take it seriously, but when Larry started to be on trend and become the front runner, I was very worried,” she said.

The documents made available by Datig describe months of emotional stress caused by the escalating romantic and business relationship. “I feel trapped and scared,” she wrote in the mail.

Datig also provided the AP with a copy of a confidentiality agreement she signed in 2014 prohibiting her from discussing the “personal and business matters” of Elder and his business, Laurence A. Elder & Associates, Inc., from going with their allegations to the public.

A letter from her attorney dated March 31, 2015 to Elder asked for $ 6,000 in monthly support for Datig for one year to cover expenses such as rent, auto, and health care expenses. She also asked for $ 195,000 for public relations, marketing, and other services that she allegedly provided for his show.

The two eventually signed an agreement on April 13, 2015, under which Elder would pay Datig $ 20,000 and pay for her legal maintenance of $ 5,000 and $ 185 for dry cleaning her wedding dress. Elder agreed that he and his assistant would sign a non-disclosure agreement on anything related to Datig, that he would write her a letter of recommendation for her work, and that they would both “stop insulting each other.”

Datig describes herself as a survivor of the sex trade and has publicly announced that she is working for the so-called former Hollywood woman Heidi Fleiss, who was convicted in the mid-1990s for running a high-priced call girl ring, a conviction that was later overturned. Fleiss was later sentenced to federal prison for defrauding her taxes and laundering call girls’ profits. In an interview with KCAL-TV in 2013, Datig described that he became an informant at Fleiss.

© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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