Police: Slayings in S.F., South City linked

By Tamara Barak Aparton, Will Reisman
Examiner Staff Writers 10/2/08

Joy Gadles holds a photo of her fiancee, Andre Townsend 29, who was a victim in a homicide in South San Francisco Tuesday evening. She is conforted by Andre's brother.The murder has been linked to another in San Francisco that same day by police. SAN FRANCISCO – A single shooter killed a man in Visitacion Valley and another in South San Francisco an hour and a half apart Tuesday, police said.

The fatal shootings were followed Wednesday by a fatal stabbing in the Tenderloin, which brought the homicide tally for San Francisco to 85 for the year.

A suspect in Tuesday’s slayings was being detained by police on unrelated charges Wednesday, police said.

At 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, 44-year-old longshoreman and East Bay resident James Starghill was shot multiple times as he stood in front of his mother’s house at Brussels and Maynard streets in The City’s Visitacion Valley neighborhood, San Francisco homicide Inspector Mike Johnson said.

The suspected shooter is a neighbor of Starghill’s mother, he said.

Starghill was able to give a partial description of his assailant before he died, which led police to the suspect, Johnson said.

At 3:30 p.m., South San Francisco police responded to 3708 Radburn Drive after Andre Jamil Townsend’s 9-year-old son notified authorities about a problem with his father, South San Francisco police spokeswoman Sgt. Joni Lee said.

By the time police arrived, they found the 29-year-old Townsend lying in his doorway, already dead from multiple gunshot wounds, Lee said.

Police also found Townsend’s other child, a 3-year-old son, upstairs watching television, Lee said. Neither of the children were injured.

The suspect in custody was a friend of the victim, Johnson said.

“The motive is unclear because neither of the victims were connected in any way we can find, other than the suspect knew both of them,” Johnson said.

The suspect, whose name was not released, is being held on an unrelated domestic violence charge, Johnson said. He has not been charged in either slaying.

“He has been interviewed and has requested a lawyer,” Johnson said.

He said the man has spoken with detectives but denied involvements in the two killings.

Townsend’s mother, Yvonne Townsend, said she lived with her son and was grocery shopping when he was killed.

She described her son as an aspiring rapper who was a loving father of his two children. She said Townsend was preparing to get married to his fiancée Oct. 20, which would have been his 30th birthday.

“He was trying to do everything positive, he was getting married, getting a job,” she said. “I raised my son by myself, he was my life.”
Townsend said police mentioned that drugs might be involved in the slaying, but she said her son was not involved in anything illegal.

As police investigated the slayings, a man, who has yet to be identified, was stabbed to death in the Tenderloin.

About 3:45 a.m., the victim was having an argument with another man on the 300 block of Ellis Street, according to police.

The argument escalated and the suspect stabbed the victim multiple times. The victim died at San Francisco General Hospital.

Police have made no arrests.

The killing raises San Francisco’s homicide total to 85 this year. In 2007, when The City recorded a decade-high 98 homicides, there were 83 killings at this date. There have been 17 slayings in September.

tbarak@sfexaminer.com

wreisman@sfexaminer.com

Killings by month in 2008

January 9
February 7
March 12
April 9
May 8
June 7
July 7
August 8
September 17
October 1
Total: 85

September homicides

There were at least 17 slayings in The City this month.

No. Name When Where
1 Marcelino Canul-Castro Sept. 1 San Carlos St.
2 Mark Guardado Sept. 2 24th St. and Treat Ave.
3 Noel Espinoza Sept. 4 24th St. and Utah St.
4 Matthew Solomon Sept. 4 24th St. and Utah St.
5 Giovanni Lechado Sept. 5 18th St. and Bryant St.
6 Joshua Cameron Sept. 5 McAllister St. and Fillmore St.
7 Nestor San Carlos Sept. 11 Taylor St. and Geary St.
8 Caprisha Green Sept. 13 Connecticut St.
9 Jamal Beasley Sept. 13 Osceola Ln. and La Salle Ave.
10 Royshawn Holden Sept. 14 Duboce Ave. and Valencia St.
11 Jordan McKay Sept. 17 Cabrillo St. and 15th Ave.
12 Darius Cooper-Brooks Sept. 20 1700 Newcomb Ave.
13 Calvin Fennell Sept. 20 100 Kiska Road
14 Ralph Ruiz Sept. 21 245 Hyde St.
15 Armando Rodriguez Sept. 23 1400 Arkansas St.
16 Steven Yarger Sept. 26 15th St. and Potrero Ave.
17 James Starghill Sept. 30 Maynard St. and Brussels St.