Two teenage males have been arrested as suspects in the killing of 32-year-old Emma Jane Hunt, which took place in the Tenderloin last week.
City officials say Hunt is one of three African-American women in their thirties to be killed in San Francisco in the past 30 days. All three women were mothers, with 11 children between them.
As we reported last week, Hunt, a San Francisco resident and mother of two, was found with gunshot wounds at the corner of Larkin and O’Farrell streets around 3:45 a.m. on Jan. 5. She was later pronounced dead at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
Police say that two suspects were arrested in the killing of Hunt: 18-year-old Kevin Lopez-Figueroa, and a 17-year-old male whose identity was not shared, due to his status as a juvenile.
Lopez-Figueroa was arrested by SFPD's narcotics unit around 10:30 a.m. on January 10, near the northeast corner of Eddy Street and Van Ness Avenue. He's been booked into the SF County Jail on charges of conspiracy and homicide.
The 17-year-old suspect was also arrested on Jan. 10, after SFPD's tactical unit and homicide detail served a search warrant at an apartment on the 600 block of Mission Bay Boulevard. He was taken to SF's juvenile justice center, and is also being charged with conspiracy and homicide.
SFPD’s announcement of the arrests came on the same day that Supervisors Matt Haney and Shamann Walton, who represent District 6 and District 10, rallied with representatives of the Mayor’s Office of Racial Equity and other advocates to condemn violence against African-American women in San Francisco.
According to KTVU, the other recent victims are Latanette McDaniel, 35, who was stabbed to death in Potrero Hill on Dec. 14, and Ronisha Cook, 33, who was fatally shot in the Tenderloin on Dec. 19. McDaniel was a mother of seven children, while Cook had two.
At yesterday's rally, Walton called for more community ambassadors and more officers on foot patrol to help assist victims or potential victims of violence.
Other advocates at the meeting stressed the need to remove barriers to victims' compensation and trauma recovery services, which are used by only 1 in 10 eligible Californians. Advocates have called for loosening application restrictions (particularly time limits), and for better promotion of the programs.
"What is most important is that we listen to the leaders within our community, listen to black women in our community, leaders who tell us what we should do to prevent this in the future," Haney said at the rally.
This morning with Supervisor Haney and Black women leaders highlighting the fact that we need to do more to protect our women from violence. All deaths and homicides in SF are tragic, but we must bring attention to the violence that disproportionately affects women of color! pic.twitter.com/YSRts9u6T1
— Shamann Walton (@shamannwalton) January 13, 2020
Although arrests have been made in Hunt's death, the case remains under investigation. Anyone with further information is encouraged to contact SFPD by calling (415) 575-4444, or texting a tip to TIP411 and beginning the message with SFPD.
