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Here’s a round-up of Wednesday news reports from around the Bay provided by the Bay City News bureau.
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A 26-year-old Ryan McKnight was killed Tuesday night in a crash on
U.S. Highway 1 in Pescadero that forced officials to close the roadway in
both directions for more than two hours, the California Highway Patrol said.
McKnight, a San Mateo resident, was driving a blue 1989 Honda
Civic south on Highway 1 near Rossi Road when she turned left in front of a
northbound black 2001 Chevy Suburban at about 6:30 p.m., CHP Officer Art
Montiel said.
McKnight was pronounced dead at the scene, and two passengers in
the Suburban were taken to Stanford hospital, Montiel said.
CHP officers completely shut down Highway 1 at Whitehouse Canyon
Road from about 7:10 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., when one side of the road was
reopened to accommodate traffic going in both directions, CHP Officer Ralph
Caggiano said.
The Suburban was driven by a 33-year-old woman and was carrying a
grandmother and four children, Montiel said.
The grandmother, age 69, was airlifted to Stanford hospital with
moderate to major injuries, he said.
An 8-year-old boy was taken by ground ambulance to Stanford with
minor to moderate injuries, and a 10-year-old girl and 6-year-old twin boys
were not injured, Montiel said.
Extrication equipment was needed on scene, but it was unclear
which passenger or passengers needed it, CHP Officer Peter Van Eckhardt said.
The highway was fully reopened shortly before midnight.
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Firefighters struggled Tuesday night to extinguish a fire at a
two-story condominium building in San Jose that was fueled by an active gas
leak, a fire captain said.
The three-alarm blaze damaged multiple units at 299 Cartago Court
and injured a woman after it broke out at about 8 p.m., Capt. Steve Forman
said. The woman suffered minor smoke inhalation and minor first-degree burns.
A gas leak on the second floor of the building made it difficult
to contain the fire, and all of the department’s units responded, Forman
said.
The fire was extinguished at about 10:10 p.m., but crew members
were still on the scene working on hot spots as of about 11 p.m., a fire
dispatcher said.
Forman said the fire was caused by a juvenile playing with matches
who apparently lit a couch on fire on the first floor.
The boy’s mother saw him playing with the matches and took them
away, but when she returned she saw the fire, Forman said.
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A car traveling near a high school in Hayward was shot in the
bumper on Tuesday after gunfire erupted in front of the campus, a Hayward
police lieutenant said.
At about 4:35 p.m., officers from the Hayward Police Department
were dispatched to Tennyson High School, located at 27035 Whitman St., after
school officials reported that multiple shots were fired in front of the
campus, Hayward police Lt. Eric Krimm said.
The shots prompted the school to issue a self-imposed lockdown at
about 4:45 p.m. that lasted for approximately 25 minutes, according to a
school administrator.
Krimm said that the school was not in session at the time of the
shooting; however, there may have been students on campus participating in
after-school programs.
No injuries were reported, but Krimm said that a single bullet
struck the bumper of a car traveling on Whitman Street, in front of the
school.
“The car seems to have been an unintended target of the gunfire,”
Krimm said.
Two people were riding in the car when the bumper was shot, he
added.
Police are investigating the incident and no arrests had been made
as of early Wednesday morning, Krimm said,
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A man was killed Tuesday night when the vehicle he was riding in
crashed into a street light pole near San Jose’s Gunderson High School,
police and fire officials said.
Two people were heading east on Chynoweth Avenue in the vehicle, a
silver 1990s two-door compact passenger car, when the driver apparently lost
control at about 6:50 p.m., San Jose police said.
Several residents heard the crash and reported it to 911.
One man was pronounced dead at the scene, and an 18-year-old man
was taken to a local hospital with unknown injuries. The man who was killed
had not been identified Tuesday night.
The cause of the crash remained under investigation.
Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call the
Police Department’s traffic investigations unit at (408) 277-4654 during
business hours or the communications center at (408) 277-8900 during
non-business hours.
Anyone wishing to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at
(408) 277-7867 or visit http://svcrimestoppers.org.
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All lanes on the Dumbarton Bridge have reopened following a fiery
crash that involved a big-rig Tuesday morning, a California Highway Patrol
spokesman said.
The big-rig crashed into a stalled sedan and caught fire in the
eastbound lanes of the bridge at about 11:05 a.m., CHP Officer Rachaude
Crawford said.
No one was seriously hurt in the crash, but the driver of the
big-rig may have suffered minor injuries, Menlo Park Fire Chief Harold
Schapelhouman said. The driver was transported to a hospital as a precaution,
Crawford said.
The sedan had stalled in an eastbound lane of the bridge due to
mechanical problems, Crawford said. The sedan’s driver, a Palo Alto resident
in her 60s, and her adult daughter exited the vehicle before the big-rig
struck it, he said.
The crash ignited a fire, which the driver of the big-rig
attempted to put out with a fire extinguisher he had in the truck, Crawford
said. But by the time the driver grabbed his fire extinguisher, flames had
spread too quickly for him to contain, Crawford said.
About 100 gallons of diesel “added fuel to fire,” Crawford said.
The big-rig’s cargo, which consisted of wood palettes and plastic totes, also
caught fire, Crawford said.
It took about 30 to 45 minutes for the Menlo Park Fire Protection
District to put out the fire, Schapelhouman said.
Schapelhouman said that time could have been shortened if a more
accessible water supply were available. He said there is only one hydrant,
located inconveniently at the base of the bridge.
The Menlo Park Fire Protection District relied on the assistance
of the Fremont Fire Department, which supplied two fire engines to help
shuttle water to the crash site, Schapelhouman said. Those were in addition
to Menlo Park’s three engines.
He likened the process to an “old-fashioned bucket brigade.”
Schapelhouman said that between 2,500 and 4,000 gallons of water
was used to extinguish the blaze.
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San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi Tuesday filed papers to
run for sheriff.
Mirkarimi filed his declaration of intent to run with the
elections department Tuesday morning, just days after Sheriff Michael
Hennessey announced he would not be seeking re-election this November.
“It would be a high honor to follow the footsteps of Sheriff Mike
Hennessey, who is arguably one of the most successful sheriffs in recent
history, not just in San Francisco but nationally,” Mirkarimi said.
Hennessey, who has been sheriff for the past 31 years, made the
announcement Friday in a memo sent out to the entire department, sheriff’s
spokeswoman Eileen Hirst said.
Mirkarimi said that if elected, he will build on Hennessey’s
legacy, particularly when it comes to programs to reduce San Francisco’s
recidivism rate, which is among the highest in the state.
A report released by the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation in November 2010 found that 78.3 percent of San Francisco’s
inmates were arrested or convicted again after release from prison, the
third-highest rate in the state.
Mirkarimi said the high recidivism rate “is not just on the
shoulders of the sheriff, but the collective shoulders of all criminal
investigation departments.”
Prior to Mirkarimi’s election as supervisor in 2004, he worked for
nearly nine years in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office as an
investigator specializing in economic and environmental crimes.
He is the chairman of the board’s public safety committee and is
also a graduate of the San Francisco Police Academy, where he was class
president.
Mirkarimi said that given his background, he would be “a very
solid fit” for the sheriff’s job.
If Mirkarimi is elected in November, the mayor would appoint his
replacement as supervisor for the rest of his term, which ends in January
2013.
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Former San Francisco supervisor, mayoral candidate, and U.S. vice
presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez returned to public service Tuesday as
chief attorney for the public defender’s office in what he called “a kind of
homecoming.”
Gonzalez worked as a deputy public defender from 1991 to 2001,
when he took office as supervisor, and will return as the office’s chief
attorney, spokeswoman Tamara Barak Aparton said.
The post is essentially second-in-command to the public defender,
Aparton said.
Since 2001, Gonzalez has served as supervisor board president,
lost a narrow mayoral race to Gavin Newsom in 2003, started a private law
firm in 2005, and even served as Ralph Nader’s vice presidential candidate
for the Green Party in the 2008 election.
“I very much liked what I was doing, but started to think about
what I might be doing next,” Gonzalez said in a phone interview Tuesday.
He said he considered “the possibility of seeking a judicial
appointment or teaching at a law school, but didn’t really consider this”
position until Public Defender Jeff Adachi broached the subject with him more
than a month ago.
Adachi has been seeking a replacement since former Chief Attorney
Teresa Caffese announced she was stepping down from the position. Caffese
officially resigned on Jan. 31, Aparton said.
Gonzalez’s appointment was announced at a staff meeting Tuesday
morning, and he started work Tuesday, she said.
Gonzalez said he was excited to return to the office where he got
his start two decades ago.
“It’s kind of where I started and originally got my skills,” he
said. “Since I’ve left, and served as supervisor and was prosecuting civil
rights cases, I liked the idea of coming back to where I started with those
additional skills.”
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A 16-year-old boy who was gunned down in front of his family’s
house in Richmond in January was allegedly killed because somebody from his
neighborhood beat up the alleged shooter’s little brother, according to
witnesses who testified at a preliminary hearing in Martinez Tuesday.
The two defendants in the case, 16-year-old Richmond resident
Tyris Franklin and 19-year-old Suisun City resident Jean Pierre Fordjour,
have both been charged with murder with enhancements for the use of a gun.
Franklin, the alleged shooter, has been charged as an adult.
A judge ordered them Tuesday to stand trial on the charges.
One witness, a 16-year-old Richmond resident, said he had been
hanging out at his house in Richmond with Franklin, Fordjour and two other
friends on the afternoon of Jan. 10 when Franklin got a phone call.
The caller told him that his little brother, who was around 12 or
13 years old, had been beaten up by some guys from the Crescent Park
neighborhood in Richmond, the witness said.
He said Franklin looked “slightly upset” and asked Fordjour to
drive him over to Crescent Park.
The whole group got in the car, two in the front and three in the
back, and headed to the neighborhood. Fordjour was driving, and Franklin was
riding in the back seat, the witness said.
When the car got there, the Fordjour went down the first street
they came to and then made a U-turn when it dead-ended. As they were turning,
they spotted the victim, Gene Grisby, crossing the street, the witness said.
He said he recognized Grisby from school and told the group, “You
don’t need to get on him.”
Franklin allegedly said, “He’s from the Crescents. They jumped my
brother. It don’t matter,” the witness said.
As Franklin got out of the car, the witness said he saw what
looked like the silver back of a gun in the pocket of Franklin’s hooded
sweatshirt.
He said he watched Franklin walk over toward Grisby, and then he
heard several gunshots. He didn’t see Franklin fire the gun because another
vehicle was blocking the view, he said.
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A tan Chihuahua that was the topic of an argument that led to its
owner being shot at a Haight Street market earlier this month died Friday
when it was run over by a car, a San Francisco police captain said Tuesday.
The owner of the dog, which was named Gizmo, was shot inside
Fred’s New Lite Market near the intersection of Haight Street and Masonic
Avenue at about 1:15 p.m. on Feb. 9, police said.
The victim and suspect Sam Kazzouh, 43, an employee at the store
and the alleged shooter, argued over Gizmo, according to court records.
The dog, which was uninjured in the shooting and was seen wearing
a small sweater afterward, was being cared for by a friend of the victim, who
remains hospitalized, police Capt. Denis O’Leary said.
However, Gizmo met a tragic end at about 1:25 p.m. Friday when the
dog was run over by a vehicle in the intersection of Haight Street and
Masonic Avenue, near the scene of the shooting, O’Leary said.
The incident started about an hour earlier and a block away at
Masonic Avenue and Page Street, where police officers responded to reports of
threats made by three suspects, O’Leary said.
Officers stopped three men matching the description of the
suspects. In the course of detaining the men, “a crowd gathered and a
commotion began,” O’Leary said.
During the commotion, the man caring for Gizmo let go of the dog,
which ran into the nearby intersection and was struck by a car, O’Leary said.
“It’s a sad story,” he said.
Kazzouh, the alleged shooter, was arraigned in San Francisco
Superior Court last week and pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted
murder, assault with a firearm, and discharge of a firearm in a grossly
negligent manner.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for March 3.
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The California Supreme Court Tuesday upheld the death penalty of
one of the longest-serving residents of the state’s death row.
In a decision issued in San Francisco, the court unanimously
affirmed the penalty of David Murtishaw, 53, for fatally shooting three
students who were making a film in the Mohave Desert on April 9, 1978.
This is the third time the case has come before the state high
court.
Murtishaw was initially convicted and sentenced to death in Kern
County Superior Court in 1979 for murdering James Henderson, 24, Marti Soto,
21, and Ingrid Etayo, 22, with a rifle.
The three victims were helping University of Southern California
film student Lance Wyatt make a film about a man stranded in the desert.
Soto, who was married to Wyatt, and Henderson were acting in the film, and
Etayo helped with props.
Murtishaw and his brother-in-law had driven to the desert with
their rifles after drinking heavily and were practicing shooting a beer can
on the hood of their car.
In a later confession to police, Murtishaw said he and his
brother-in-law had drunk three to four six-packs of beer that day. He said he
was “scared and just mixed up” and fired after one of the students shot from
a blank pistol used in one of the film scenes.
A prison inmate later testified, however, that Murtishaw told him
he killed the students to steal their car to sell for drugs.
Wyatt was injured but survived and ran to a highway and summoned
help.
In its first ruling on the case in 1981, the state high court
upheld Murtishaw’s conviction but ordered a new death penalty trial.
Murtishaw was again sentenced to death, and the state Supreme Court upheld
the penalty in 1989.
But in 2001, a federal appeals court ordered another death penalty
trial. Murtishaw was resentenced to death in Kern County Superior Court and
then appealed again to the state Supreme Court.
In Tuesday’s decision, the court rejected a series of appeal
claims that challenged trial court rulings and the state’s death penalty law.
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A missing Vallejo man who was found dead last Wednesday in the
Mare Island Strait died of blunt force trauma injuries, a Sonoma County
coroner’s deputy said Tuesday afternoon.
Whether 45-year-old Robert Mast’s death was a homicide remains to
be determined, coroner’s deputy Jackson Harris said. Toxicology tests are
pending.
Mast went missing from his Santa Clara Street home on Feb. 5 after
he took his white-and-black female pitbull for a walk. He was last seen in
the River Park area.
The dog, still on its leash, returned home later that day, Vallejo
police said.
Mast’s friends and family members said it was highly unusual for
him not to remain in touch and that he took his dog everywhere, police Lt.
Ken Weaver said.
The U.S. Coast Guard discovered Mast’s body around 2:15 p.m. Feb.
16, Solano County sheriff’s Lt. Gary Faulkner said.
Janna Brancolini, Bay City News
Janna Brancolini, Bay City News
