Housing project security tightened / 10 Bayview shootings within past fortnight include 3 fatalities
2002-08-02 04:00:00 PDT San Francisco -- The second killing in a San Francisco public housing development in less than a week has prompted police to increase patrols and Housing Authority officials to dispatch a private security force this weekend to stem the violence.
Wednesday night's shooting of 29-year-old Reginald Shelton at 975 Connecticut St. was an apparent ambush killing, Lt. Judie Pursell of the homicide detail said Thursday.
"He answered the door and walked out -- we can only assume he knew the people, or else why would he walk out?" Pursell said.
Police said they are investigating whether Shelton's killing is connected to the shooting last Friday night that claimed the life of 34-year-old Kevin Hall at 918 Connecticut. Hall was shot four times.
"We have nothing that links them together, (but) because of the location, it's an avenue that we're going to look into," said Inspector Maureen D'Amico of the homicide detail.
"It could be coincidence -- we don't know," D'Amico said.
Both killings happened in the Potrero Hill housing project. "We are quite concerned," Housing Authority spokesman Michael Roetzer said.
Police in the area met Thursday to plan stepped-up enforcement measures, surveillance and other tactics.
Lt. John Murphy of the Bayview station said there have been 10 shootings in the Bayview in less than two weeks, leaving three people dead. "This is terrible," he said.
The violence started July 19, when a 35-year-old man was shot in the abdomen on Revere Street. Four days later, someone opened fire at the Alice Griffith housing project, leaving two men injured. Four hours later, gunfire erupted at the Hunters View housing project, leaving two more wounded.
The evening of July 26, a 27-year-old man was shot in the chest at Keith and Quesada streets. He survived. Later that night, Hall was shot at the Potrero Hill project. He was not a resident there, authorities said.
Two days later, Gerald White, 37, a homicide witness who appeared but did not testify at a grand jury session at the Hall of Justice on July 25, was shot to death in the garage of his girlfriend's home on Sweeny Street.
Later that night, a 38-year-old man was shot in the waist near the Hunters View housing project.
The next day, July 29, a noontime shooting at the Alice Griffith housing project missed the intended target, but a 20-year-old woman was hit twice in the leg. The apparent intended victim was arrested later with a handgun.
Then, about 7 p.m., someone stopped a car and fired 19 rounds at 918 Connecticut, the building where Hall had been killed three days earlier. No one was injured.
Inspector Toney Chaplin of the gang detail said that shooting was "loosely tied" to Andrew Mackey, 26, who was being sought on a $2 million warrant for attempted murder.
A police chase ended without capture after Mackey rammed a car to make his escape.
Police said most of the recent incidents appear to have been aimed at particular people, rather than random gang-type shootings.
"These are not tied to any gang stuff," Chaplin said. "These are more personal beefs. These were not accidental killings, by their very nature."
Roetzer, the spokesman for the Housing Authority, said his agency will spend $3.4 million on security this year, including the placement of a private guard force at Potrero Hill.
He said extra security had also been added recently at the Sunnydale development, after sexual assaults heightened tensions and one man was killed by a resident who suspected he had something to do with the attacks. The victim had nothing to do with the assaults, police said.
The Housing Authority also has held meetings with residents in the wake of the violence.
"We're trying to approach this in a comprehensive way," Roetzer said. "This is the first time we have had this many incidents all within a short period of time. Something is happening. We're not sure what it is."