Suspicious Castro Package Prompts SFPD To Issue Shelter In Place Order Wednesday Night

Suspicious Castro Package Prompts SFPD To Issue Shelter In Place Order Wednesday NightPhoto: Sergio Quintana/Twitter
Walter Thompson
Published on May 04, 2017

Last night, police closed traffic near Market and Castro and instructed residents to shelter in place order after responding to a report of a suspicious package at 9:17pm.

According to SFPD spokesperson Officer Grace Gatpandan, police were called to the area after someone discovered "a propane tank" that had "a label indicating the item was possibly explosive in nature."

In response, officers immediately restricted pedestrian and vehicular traffic, issued a shelter in place order and established a perimeter. The department's Explosive Ordinance Disposal team "responded to the scene and ultimately rendered the item non-hazardous at approximately 11:10pm," Gatpandan wrote via email.

This is the second time SFPD's bomb-disposal team has been called into action in recent weeks. On April 24, police responded to a suspicious device report on Potrero Hill; in that case, EOD officers rendered a pipe bomb and a grenade safe "after a small detonation," said Bayview Station Capt. Raj Vaswani.