FiDi, North Beach Recent Crime Roundup

Photo: Thomas Hawk/Flickr

Geri Koeppel
Published on April 25, 2015

Periodically, Hoodline will round up some recent crimes and injuries in the Financial District and North Beach areas as reported by SFPD sources. Though not meant to be comprehensive, it should serve as a brief snapshot of recent activity to help locals stay informed. We'll also occasionally include snippets from SFPD Central Station Capt. David Lazar's newsletter.

This week's SFPD Central Station Captain's Newsletter is full of information, including the case of a stolen cello that was returned, and an effort to hand out educational flyers to pedestrians who jaywalk.

It  also includes crimes of note—lots of shoplifting and thefts from locked vehicles, as usual—and the following details about a graffiti arrest:

"On April 21st, Officers Ryan McEachern and Michael Pardini were on patrol in the lower Nob Hill Area. Around 4:40 a.m., at Sutter and Mason, a citizen yelled “Police!” The person pointed to a graffiti vandal who was walking South on Mason Street approaching Post Street. The citizen told the Officers that the suspect had just spray painted a window of a business. As the Officers approached the suspect, he threw down his paint can and began running. The Officers chased him a couple of blocks where they captured him. The suspect was charged with two counts of vandalism and resisting arrest. In his possession were two spray paint cans, a marker, and a sticker."

Here are more police calls from the past few days:

A cosmetics robbery at 9:10pm April 17th on the unit block of Drumm led to a facial injury. A man thought to be 30 to 40 years old entered a store and took cosmetic items, and when he left, a 19-year-old man confronted him. The suspect punched the victim, who fell onto the ground and suffered swelling to his face. He was transported to St. Francis Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The suspect fled the scene on foot.

An attempted robbery at 10:05pm April 18th in the 600 block of Hyde St. left a 63-year-old man with a bruised cheek. He got a call and stepped out of his car to talk when a man walked up to him, punched him on the cheek and tried to steal his phone. The victim fought him off, and the suspect fled on foot.

An Uber driver was arrested after hitting a cyclist with his vehicle at North Point and Taylor streets around 1:30pm on April 19th. The cyclist was yelling at the driver and struck it with his hand, and the Uber driver sped up and struck him, knocking him unconscious and causing broken ribs, a broken clavicle and punctured lung. The driver, 28-year-old Emerson Decarvalho of Daly City, remained on scene and was arrested. He was booked on assault with a deadly weapon and failing to maintain a three-foot barrier. Read more on Hoodline.

At 10:54pm April 19th, a man between 30 and 40 years old entered a business on the 600 block of Sutter Street, pulled out a screwdriver, threatened the victim—a 25-year-old man—and then used the screwdriver to pry open the cash register. The suspect took the money from the register and fled eastbound on Sutter Street.

In what has been a pervasive trend in Chinatown, a woman had her necklace ripped right off of her neck. The 71-year-old woman arrived home in the 800 block of Washington Street at 10:30am April 20th and was getting her keys when the suspect approached her from behind. He and forcibly ripped off her gold necklace with a heart pendant and fled in an unknown direction. The victim suffered a scratch to her neck and refused treatment.

Portable potties were not safe this week, as two were set on fire: One sometime between 7:30pm and 12:38am April 20th–21st on the 2100 block of Jones Street and another at 10:49pm April 23rd on the 800 block of Chestnut Street.  The first also caused damage to an unoccupied parked vehicle. Officers extinguished both fires.

At 7:32pm April 21st at Ross Alley & Washington Street, two 18-year-old men approached a 17-year-old man, brandished a black revolver and demanded his property. They made off with a smart phone and money, and fled westbound on Washington Street.

A 25-year-old man was stabbed with an unknown sharp object at 8:40pm April 23rd in the 2600 block of Mason Street after a verbal altercation. The two suspects, one of whom was 18 or 19 years old, fled the scene.