City grieves with family for boy, 6, in shooting
San Francisco police, local officials and the family of slain 6yearold Jace Young pleaded Tuesday for the Bayview community to help identify the person responsible for the killing that occurred as a crowd gathered to watch Fourth of July fireworks.
At a candlelight vigil Tuesday evening that drew hundreds of people, Jace’s father, Jason Young, begged anyone with information — or who knows someone with information — to “pick up the phone.”
“I’m tired of this happening to my friends and these people that I know,” said Young, who wore a “Justice for Jace” face mask. “I’m not going to stop fighting, I’m not going to stop pushing, until one of these streets in West Point is changed to Jace Way.”
Jace’s death has shattered a community that for generations has lived in fear of gun violence and bloodshed. When speaking to reporters and community leaders, Young noted that some of the loved ones surrounding him were already suffering the losses of their own sons and daughters.
Supporters have seized on the killing as a wakeup call for San Francisco, and say that
more services and funding need to be directed toward San Francisco’s Black youth.
Earlier in the day, Young stood beside San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott, Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton, who joined the family’s pleas for witnesses to come forward.
Young spoke of the two San Franciscos. One side of the city is a place where people ride cable cars and celebrate in the streets without judgment or fear, he said, while the other side of the city can be a “death penalty” for young Black people.
Jace, the father said, “was from that different part of San Francisco.”
Still, Young said, he was bound to make something of himself, and it was evident to everyone who met him.
The boy “told you what was on his mind, right or wrong,” Young said. He wanted nothing more in life but his chargers, some milk, and to build on his computer, “from the time he woke up to the time he went to sleep.”
“Justice for Jace!” Young yelled, thrusting his fist in the air as police, politicians and community members followed his lead. “Justice for Jace!”
At about 10:44 p.m. Saturday, San Francisco police were dispatched to a call of a shooting on Whitfield Court, near the 1200 block of Ingalls Street, where they found Jace suffering from a gunshot wound.
A second, 39yearold male victim, also suffered a gunshot wound and was hospitalized with nonlifethreatening injuries.
Police on Tuesday said investigators were continuing to review video surveillance footage of the area, interviewing witnesses and following up on tips from members of the community.
Scott said it was “premature” to elaborate on any of the leads, but said there were currently no suspects and no persons of interest.
The chief said detectives are sensitive to wouldbe witnesses’ concerns about coming forward, and stressed that they would never want to put someone’s safety in jeopardy.
“But we’re going to keep trying,” he said. “Somebody saw something. We know that. There were a lot of people out there.”
The murder also revived a discussion about gun violence in the city’s predominantly Black neighborhoods — conversations that have been overshadowed of late by a deadly pandemic and a national reckoning on police violence in communities of color.
Mayor London Breed’s voice cracked as she spoke about the pain that Jace’s parents were now suffering.
“I want us to remember this.
I want us to remember what this feels like,” she said, her voice rising in anger. “Never forget how this hurts. How this tears at our hearts and our souls.”
Breed said residents should be outraged not just when there’s a police shooting, but any time someone dies as a result of violence.
“We are here because we want justice,” she said. “We are here because we need y’all to put down the guns.”
Accountability, Breed said, “starts with us.”
Supervisor Walton, whose District 10 represents San Francisco’s BayviewHunters Point neighborhood, echoed Breed’s statements, saying he’s “tired of having to bury young Black people.”
“If one message resonates, it should be the message of: stop killing each other,” Walton said. “Of ending gun violence right here and right now.”
Investigators do not believe the shooting was random, but neither Jace nor the other victim appears to have been the intended target.
Jace’s killing came less than 24 hours before another shooting Sunday in the Bayview. The fatal shooting of 18yearold Jerome Mallory marked San Francisco’s 23rd homicide of the year. No one has been arrested in connection to that killing.
In a brief interview with the Chronicle, Breed said there was “always an urgency” to direct more funding to the Black community, but that the recent uprising only calls more attention to it.
“The fact is, the kid that shot Jace should have never picked up a gun in the first place,” she said. “And that’s what we’re trying to stop here.”