2 found shot dead in car near Dolores Park in S.F.

A man and a woman were found shot to death inside a car parked outside a home in San Francisco’s Dolores Heights neighborhood Saturday morning, police said.

A resident in the neighborhood called police about 9:30 a.m. to ask for a well-being check on a car with two people inside at 21st and Rayburn streets, said Officer Robert Rueca, a San Francisco Police Department spokesman.

Officers arrived to find a man and woman with at least one gunshot wound each. They were pronounced dead at the scene. It was not clear how long the victims had been in the car.

Police called Child Protective Services after finding a car seat, but no child, in the vehicle, Rueca said. The relationship between the victims was not disclosed.

A gun was recovered from the scene, but police are classifying the event as a double homicide, Rueca said. Investigators will dust the gun for prints and canvass the area for surveillance video.

The intersection of 21st and Rayburn was cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape until almost 1 p.m. Saturday as confused residents asked police what had happened in their neighborhood.

Police did not release the make or model of the car the victims were in, but a silver Saturn Ion was towed from the scene shortly after 1 p.m.

The victims were in a car on Rayburn Street, a narrow, one-way road in the neighborhood.

A resident on the street said she heard muffled gunshots from inside her home between 9 and 10 a.m.

“I’ve been here for 20 years. It’s a beautiful neighborhood,” said the resident, who declined to give her name. “Nothing like this has ever happened.”

Carolyn Kenady, chair of the Dolores Heights Improvement Club, said her family has been in the neighborhood for 50 years, but now she’s worried about public safety.

“It’s so sad. It’s crazy too. We just had the shooting at Dolores Park,” Kenady said. “Now this happened.”

The Dolores Heights neighborhood, a small, quaint community two blocks from Dolores Park, was shaken up after a triple shooting at the park in August.

Before Saturday’s shooting, a neighborhood party had already been scheduled for Oct. 7 on Sanchez Street between 21st and Hill streets, where the neighborhood association will focus on public safety, she said.

“To have something like this happen is just saddening. It’s tragic,” said Kenady, who said she lives two blocks away from Saturday’s crime scene. “It’s just a really wonderful neighborhood.”

Rueca said the crime does not appear to be a random act of violence.

“Things happen everywhere,” Rueca said at the crime scene Saturday. “This is relatively a pretty safe neighborhood. Very quiet.”