One person was shot Thursday afternoon on Mission Street near 17th Street and is in the hospital with life-threatening injuries, the San Francisco Police Department said.
A police officer at the scene said there had been a “big fight” on the street before shots rang out, and that a suspect was thought to have fled on foot heading east down 18th Street.
Police are still investigating how many suspects may have been involved in the shooting. One officer said it could be one person, or “a group or a couple of people.” No suspects had been apprehended at the time of reporting.
After being shot sometime around 3 p.m., the victim ran inside the nonprofit organization HOMEY — Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth — at 2221 Mission St. The youth staff there administered first aid.
The victim sought safety inside HOMEY’s headquarters on Mission Street near 17th. Photo by Nicholas David.
Across the street, at Chicken Fried Palace, General Manager Lily Brown said either one or two shots were fired.
HOMEY’s executive director, Roberto Eligio Alfaro, came to the nonprofit’s headquarters shortly after the incident. While he wasn’t present for the shooting itself or its immediate aftermath, he heard from his staff who were on the scene.
“The youth team kept him alive,” Alfaro said, “until the ambulance came.”
A neighboring preschool had to close early and sent its children home after the shooting. A teacher there described hearing “a loud bang” — luckily, she said, it was during nap time, and the children were far from the building’s Mission Street entrance.
“Everything was safe in here with them,” the teacher said.
Outside HOMEY, Alfaro cast his eyes down and spoke softly as he told Mission Local what he knew. The “young man” who was shot wasn’t directly affiliated with HOMEY, Alfaro said, but “he knew some of the participants in the program.”
San Francisco homicide rate has spiked this year after a 70-year low in 2025. That year, San Francisco saw 28 homicides total, the lowest since 1954.
So far this year, the city has seen 14, a 250 percent increase over the four at this time last year.