It's been another busy month for crime and mayhem in the Upper Haight. Here's our monthly recap (see May's edition here).
We learned at the most recent Park Station community meeting that robberies and car thefts have seen a drop in frequency, though the Haight has seen some violent crime this month.
One of the biggest stories of the month came earlier this week, when a 35-year-old man was left in critical condition after he was stabbed at Hippie Hill by four to six men in their early twenties. He was transported to SF General, and the suspects have not been apprehended.
The other developing story is that of 66-year-old Stephen Williams, whose body was found in Alvord Lake on May 24th. Williams' assailants were shown beating and drowning him in turns in a horrifying cell phone video obtained by NBC Bay Area. The Chronicle reported that the suspects believed they were delivering "vigilante justice" because Williams had been exposing himself to children in the park.
Two suspects, Nikki Lee Williams (who goes by the name "Evil") and 19-year-old Stephen Billingsly (aka "Pizza Steve"), have been arrested and charged, but investigators are looking for more suspects.
In the meantime, we learned last week that some members of the homeless population in the Haight may be laying low in fear of being connected to the ongoing investigation.
Also last week, an unknown vandal spray-painted racial epithets on three houses on Fulton Street. No arrests have been made.
In slightly better news, those spiky baseball bats with nails sticking out of them that were showing up chained to bike racks around the city turned out to just be an art installation. The artist, Barry McGee, works closely with RVCA on Haight.
Other incidents this month include your standard quality-of-life violations, drug busts, and car break-ins, with a few notable exceptions, as reported by SFPD:
On June 13th, employees at the Randall Museum at Corona Heights came to work to find the windows shattered.
Also near Corona Heights, there was an armed robbery on the 1300 block of Clayton Street on June 14th. The victim, a truck driver for Amazon, was approached by two men with a firearm who demanded he hand over the keys to the truck. The perpetrators fled on foot and "nearly got hit by a passing vehicle."
On June 15th, a robbery with a gun was called in at Grove and Masonic. When officers got to the scene, they broadcast a description of the perpetrators, and a patrol car was able to locate a vehicle matching the description. Officers found the victim's belongings in the car, as well as the firearm, which turned out to be a fake. The suspects were arrested.
At about 8:10pm on June 22nd, a 55-year-old man was talking to a woman at Waller & Stanyan when her companion, a man aged 35-40, punched him twice in the mouth. The suspect then took the victim's laptop and backpack and fled the scene with the woman in tow.
If you've got any additional crime and mayhem to report in the neighborhood, don't forget to send us a tip here.
