Mission violence continues with fatal shooting Sunday
By: Will Reisman
Examiner Staff Writer
September 15, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — The ongoing surge of violence in the Mission district continued Sunday night, when a San Francisco man was fatally shot on the corner of Valencia Street and Duboce Avenue. He was the eighth person killed in the neighborhood since Aug. 22.
Emergency personnel responded to the scene after gunfire was heard on the corner about 9:30 p.m., police spokesman Sgt. Neville Gittens said. Gittens said the victim, 23-year-old Royshawn Holden, was having a verbal argument with another man before the incident.
By the time police arrived, Holden was lying on the ground and had a gunshot wound. The suspect, a black male, fled northbound on Duboce in a green minivan, Gittens said.
No arrests have been made in the case, which is under investigation.
Holden died hours after arriving at San Francisco General Hospital.
A witness at the scene last night who wished to remain anonymous said the green minivan approached Holden at a high rate of speed and fired off five shots without anyone ever leaving the vehicle.
The witness said Holden was standing in front of the Oil Changers auto shop on Valencia Street with another friend when he was shot. The witness said Holden’s friend was pleading with officers to let him call Holden’s mother, but she said the police handcuffed the friend instead and questioned him.
Holden was the 76th homicide victim in San Francisco in 2008. In 2007, when The City recorded a decade-high 98 homicides, there were 80 killings at the same time of the year, according to Gittens. Holden’s death came one day after 19-year-old Caprisha Green was fatally shot outside her home in Potrero Hill.
Police have been stepping up efforts in the Mission to quell violence after a spate of recent homicides in the area. However, since Sept. 3, when the department began adding officers and patrol cars to the neighborhood following the fatal shooting of a Hells Angels Motorcycle Club member, there have been three more homicides in the Mission.
On Sunday night, extra patrols were once again out in the neighborhood, Gittens said.
