Arrest in Ocean View shooting
Vallejo man, 24, jailed over slaying, wounding of pair
A 24-year-old man was arrested in connection with the broad-daylight shooting in San Francisco’s Ocean View neighborhood that left a bystander dead and injured two others, police said Thursday.
Jonathon Santos of Vallejo was taken into custody on the 300 block of Mansell Street minutes after the 10:40 a.m. Wednesday shooting at Plymouth Avenue and Broad Street that killed 65-year-old Lian Xiu Wu. He was jailed on suspicion of murder and attempted murder and was awaiting a decision on charges by city prosecutors.
The other victims, a 40-yearold San Jose man and 51-yearold San Francisco man, were treated at a hospital for nonlife-threatening gunshot wounds.
Xiu, who was gunned down just steps away from her home, was a familiar figure around the neighborhood. Neighbors recalled seeing her walking about collecting recyclables and taking her young relatives to the park to play.
She came to the country 16 years ago to help take care of family, leaving her daughter behind in China, according to a GoFundMe page started by Xiu’s nephew, Denny Truong, to pay for funeral expenses.
It took her 14 years to raise enough money to bring her daughter to America, Truong said.
“She was like a second mom to all her nieces and nephews and cared selflessly for our grandfather,” he wrote in the
GoFundMe post.
The intersection where the shooting took place has recently been a hot spot for violence, with some attributing the uptick in gunfire to a turf war between gangs from the Sunnydale and Lakeview areas. Five shootings have occurred near the intersection of Plymouth and Broad since October, police said.
In October, 22-year-old Keron Lamotte was slain, and in January, 18-year-old Josiah Lightfoot was fatally shot at the intersection.
Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, who represents the neighborhood, said he has been working with the police to increase foot patrols and police presence, but many residents remain shaken.
“It’s bad down there,” said Fouad Hussein, 54, who runs a market on the corner of Broad Street and Capitol Avenue and has been working in the neighborhood for more than 30 years. “We thought it was going to be quieter from now on since the neighborhood’s starting to change, but the past few months, it feels like it’s getting worse.”
Annette Shelton, 75, runs a beauty shop around the corner from the shooting and called 911 after Xiu was shot.
She said cameras are needed to deter violence, which is keeping people from coming to the neighborhood. Josiah Lightfoot’s sister and grandmother used to come to her salon, she said — but now, it’s too painful.
“You think they want to come to the place where their brother died, where their grandson died?” Shelton said. “Who would want to rekindle those memories?”
In addition to raising money to cover Xiu’s funeral expenses, her nephew hopes to use donations from the GoFundMe to help her daughter relocate to a safer area.