Shooting at park sends hundreds scrambling
A burst of gunfire from a group of men in San Francisco’s Dolores Park, some of them wearing bandannas on their faces, wounded three people Thursday afternoon and sent hundreds of others scrambling for cover, police and witnesses said.
Two of the victims, both men, were initially in critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital, authorities said. The third victim, a boy, was a minor whose condition was being withheld, said hospital spokesman Brent Andrew.
In the evening, Andrew said that one of the men was discharged, with the other remaining in critical condition, with unspecified injuries.
Witnesses saw several people speeding away from the park in a car after the 3 p.m. shootings, said Officer Grace Gatpandan, a police spokeswoman. No arrests have been made.
The gunfire shocked people who packed into the Mission District park on a warm afternoon, many of them parents and children. People who live near Dolores Park said violence there is rare and shootings all but unheard of.
Several witnesses said the shootings happened after about half a dozen men started shouting and acting threateningly on the bridge that leads into the park from 19th and Church streets. The men appeared to be in their late teens or early 20s and some of them wore bandannas that covered all but their eyes, the witnesses said.
One man, who goes by the name Hatter, said several park regulars had confronted the group and that he heard people yelling. Hatter said he “went up there to mediate and make sure everything was OK and nobody was fighting.”
As Hatter approached, he said, he heard somebody shout, “They’re strapped, bro!” A second later, he said, one of the men pulled out a handgun and fired six to seven rounds in rapid succession — an account confirmed by multiple witnesses.
Two people directly behind Hatter were struck by bullets, one in the head and one in the leg, he said. Hatter escaped with only some “shrapnel” to his leg, he said, perhaps from a ricochet.
“I normally can handle (myself ) well in these situations, but I was pretty sure I had just lost my life,” he said.
Other witnesses said the men then scattered into the neighborhood.
Josh Long of San Francisco said he had been standing about 20 yards from the shootings. He saw one blood-covered victim writhing on the ground and a man wearing a heathergray hoodie pulled up over his head sprinting away.
The park was “packed with kids, packed with people” at the time, said another witness, Antonia Juhasz. She said she was reading a book on a bench in the southwest corner of the park when she heard popping sounds that reminded her of firecrackers. But when she glanced in the direction from which the sound had come, she saw a man with his arm extended, holding a handgun.
Juhasz said she immediately became aware of how many children were nearby — both at the playground below her and running around the grassy hills. The children and their parents seemed unconcerned and she assumed that they, too, thought the sound was fireworks. She yelled “it’s a gun” and started shooing children to get down on the ground before realizing she should take cover herself. She then crouched behind a trash can and called 911.
All over the park, people began to panic as they realized they’d heard gunshots. Some dove into the grass, covering their heads. Others crouched behind trees or benches. And others fled into the streets around the park.
Juhasz said when she stood up again a few minutes after the shots were fired, she saw two victims, both lying on the ground at the base of the bridge above the Miguel Hidalgo statue. Both men appeared to be bleeding, and one victim was covered in bandages and was “not looking good,” Juhasz said.
In the hours after the shooting, a tangled mess of clothing and a pair of flip-flops were visible at the end of the bridge where the victims were shot. Crime scene technicians were going over the scene.
It wasn’t a sight that people who live near the park were used to.
“I’ve lived here for years, and this doesn’t happen,” Juhasz said. “It’s awful, actually.”
A neighborhood resident, Jason Lopez jones, said the shootings were an indication that “we need more police presence in the park . ... There are all sorts of shady characters and non-park-like activity, when you think of a family park.”
San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Filipa Ioannou contributed to this report.