One person was killed and at least four others injured after a chase by San Francisco police pursuing a stolen city vehicle ended when the vehicle crashed at 16th and Potrero streets this morning.
“It sounded like an explosion, almost,” said Hector Martinez, the owner of Your New Barber nearby, who saw the aftermath of the crash. “I ran outside, and I saw chaos.”
That same morning, one block away, a traffic enforcement officer was allegedly assaulted at 17th and Utah streets. Police said the parking control officer was hit in the back of the head by an unknown male, who fled the scene and has not been arrested. The officer has been taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The incidents were unrelated, according to officers on the scene.
San Francisco police responded to a reported carjacking that occurred near 10 a.m. this morning at Folsom and Mabini streets in SoMa. Officers then received a tip that the allegedly stolen vehicle, a Municipal Transportation Agency truck pickup truck, was spotted at Kansas and 25th streets. Police subsequently pursued the stolen vehicle in a chase.
The truck crashed into at least one other vehicle and then the bus stop at 16th and Potrero streets in front of the Boston Market, according to police. At least five were injured, including the suspected carjacker.
One of the pedestrians who was struck has died. Martinez said first responders tried to resuscitate the person for 10 minutes, but were unsuccessful.
The other injured parties were taken away by an ambulance to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, according to a witness on site.
Martinez said he saw the suspect sitting by the destroyed bus stop in handcuffs as soon as he stepped out of his store. The sidewalk outside the Boston Market was splattered with blood and the truck was smashed, its tailgate hanging from its hinges.
Police said one person has been arrested for the carjacking of the city truck, which involved a “physical struggle” with a city employee. The suspect is currently hospitalized.
After the crash, roads were closed two blocks on each side of the scene.
Police did not clarify whether the pursuit was a high-speed chase. They did confirm witness reports that deputies from the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department were involved in the chase, but did not provide details.
This is a developing story and will be updated as details become available. Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to call the SFPD Tip Line at 1-415-575-4444 or Text a Tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD.
Crime is trauma and the county offers different services, which can be found here. Victims of violent crime can also contact the Trauma Recovery Center at UCSF.
10:00 a.m. | The city
pickup truck is carjacked
at Folsom and Mabini
Potrero Ave
1
Boston
Market
The car crashes
at 16th and Potrero,
killing one and injuring
at least four others
16th St
3
The allegedly stolen
car crashed and hit
pedestrians here,
becoming wedged
between the bus stop
and the Boston Market
A second car
was also totalled
in the intersection
Officers heard that the
vehicle was at Kansas and
25th, and gave chase.
2
17th St
10:00 a.m. | The city
pickup truck is carjacked
at Folsom and Mabini
1
The car crashes
at 16th and Potrero,
killing one and injuring
at least four others
3
Officers heard that the
vehicle was at Kansas and
25th, and gave chase.
2
3
Potrero Ave
Boston
Market
16th St
The allegedly stolen
car crashed and hit
pedestrians here
A second car
was also totalled
in the intersection
17th St
Map by Will Jarrett. Basemap from Mapbox.
More people should take Driver’s Ed Classes!
I was trying to get to the bus stop where the crash happened but it was blocked by the police. I probably would have escaped injury because I always wait for the bus near or in the Potrero Center pedestrian entrance. It’s a good idea to have an escape hatch in case of this very type of incident. Ironically, I’ve been pleased that the bus stop was recently moved about ten feet closer to Potrero Avenue and the sidewalk around it was refurbished.
Shouldn’t all SF City vehicles have satellite/ air tag/ tracking devices installed? It is 2023 not 1923… Then this would not happen.
What stops them from doing it other than laziness in the part of City staff?
What a dog whistle of a headline.
How is this a dog whistle of a headline? There was in fact a carjacking in the mission. And there was in fact a crash injuring several people and killing one. Should we just pretend these violent crimes aren’t happening and not cover them so as not to “dog whistle”???
That crumple of metal in front of the truck appears to be part of sidewall of the truck bed – looks to have sheared a portion of it completely off. That equates to one heck of a lot of force/speed.
I guess it’s time to Defund the Sheriff right lunatics?
It was a sheriff that was chasing it in a white and green car, not a black and white.
Another commenter wrote: “Not sure why they would need to pursue a city truck”
A truck is a deadly weapon as you can see here. If the criminal was willing to hit a city employee on the back of the head to steal their truck, what else do you think they would do? Do you think they would hesitate to ram this stolen truck into a crowded store full of people to rob the store? Do you think that this person would hesitate to ram this stolen truck into you?
Amazing what excuses people will come up with, and how they will try to bend everything to blame the police for this. How about having some accountability & repercussions for the criminal’s actions?
The repercussions for stealing a car need to be great enough so that nobody wants to steal any car, for fear of what would happen to them.
Yet there are some that would say about this violent criminal, “Well, he couldn’t afford a car, so how would he ever get one, other than steal it?”
Absolving a criminal from any repercussions only perpetuates crime.
I’m glad the police were there and were able to put this person in handcuffs before they did any more damage.
🤦♂️ Reread the article and try again Mike. The person getting hit in the back of the head was unrelated to the carjacking.
The person who hit the parking enforcement officer was (likely) a different person. Certainly, the parking enforcement officer who got his and sent to the hospital didn’t quickly get into a Public Works pick up and drive to Mabini and Folsom.
Cops chase cars/trucks and people get killed. Perhaps the city truck doesn’t have GPS that would make it easy to find, but that is on the city for not installing it. The death is on the cops.
Roughly 30 years ago, two speeding cop cars collided at 17th and Dolores. I believe people in both cars died at the scene. Why were they being driven so fast? Someone at 18th and Castro had a knife. A knife! The time difference two cover a mile driving at 40 mph is 1.5 minutes, versus 3 minutes at 20 mph. A knife-wielding individual is rather easy to get away from. The cops drove that fast because they could do so with impunity – except in this case some cops died. Whose fault is that really?
BS
23 years ago.
As long as we are speculating. Do you know that the driver who stole the vehicle would have been driving so crazy if not being pursued by the police? No, you don’t. I don’t either but common sense might suggest that a pursuit on city streets might impact the criminal driver’s tendencies?
I don’t see any comments calling to absolve the the carjacker. Just explaining that there are ways to deal with the situation that don’t put our neighbors in danger.
Of course – no one should steal vehicles. But police pursuits create unreasonable danger for anyone in their path. Is the life of the woman who was killed, the impact on her loved ones, and the outcomes for those injured worth more than a city pick up truck? Yes – immeasurably.
High speed chases are far too dangerous and do not ‘protect and serve’ the public.
I send my best wishes to all injured.
There must be a G*d: the driver was not immediately executed as he sat by the bus stop. 25th & Kansas, eh?
Once again it’s the cops fault huh Krupke? No mention of the piece of garbage who stole a truck and plowed into innocent bystanders. SF is in denial. Crime is out of control.
Yes, it’s the cops fault for chasing the suspect in a crowded urban area for a piece of shit DPW pickup truck. Was it worth the life of an unassuming pedestrian? I suppose for the right-wing crowd who only put a value on the lives of rich and famous in this town it’s more than ok for the cops to cause yet another loss of life in the name of keeping us safe! What a crock of shit!
Disagree. The cops can’t just let dangerous criminals escape. It is their job to give chase and capture the criminal.
Absolutely the POS who stole the truck is the reason this occurred. If no theft then no accident. However, the pursuit rules were written to prevent just this sort of incident because a vehicle pursuit on crowded streets is extremely dangerous. The POS won’t pay, the taxpayers will.
SFPD policy is chase only for violent felonies – carjacking qualifies in this case. This is no mere stolen car / joyride.
SFPD has written rules basically forbidding officers to engage in pursuit unless certain specific reasons apply and approval is given. Not sure why they would need to pursue a city truck. Listening to dispatch tapes will be interesting to hear what officers told the supervising officers to get the pursuit granted. Usually SFPD states there was no pursuit, the officers were just following the suspect vehicle. Expect big lawsuits for this incident.
Pursuing someone who had just committed a carjacking would be squarely within SFPD pursuit policy. That said, I don’t think it was worth it. Perhaps the policy needs to be modified.
Incredible how there are people who immediately point to police being at fault without knowing all the facts. Appalling. Always an excuse in this town to keep police from enforcing the laws.
Incredible how there are people who immediately jump to making excuses for police actions resulting in the deaths of innocent bystanders, without knowing the basic facts, entirely indifferent to loss of life and destruction of property that might have been avoided with a more careful response.
We can all agree SFPD is flawed to the core. That said, this wasn’t a far distance to this chase. Suspect it played out in minutes. Big Jacob who wouldn’t know left from right in an acute situation doesn’t seem to understand this. Tito ,upset there’s no foot patrols in the Mission? Did you vote for Ronen and her historically firm belief that there needs to be less police not more?
To be clear my stance is there are a lot of amazing officers in SFPD. Most of my issues run with the union.
We don’t all agree
>> “Always an excuse in this town to keep police from enforcing the laws.”
Yeah, like the “severe staffing shortage” that we continually hear about from Mayor Breed as to why we cannot have beat police on patrol in the Mission – but take a BART to Union Square where you’ll find loads of police standing around in order to prevent the theft of $1,200 handbags.