Police investigate rash of shootings over July 4th holiday in SF's Bayview

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ByVic Lee KGO logo
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
SFPD investigates rash of shooting in the Bayview.
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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A rash of shootings marred the long July Fourth weekend in San Francisco's Bayview. Nearly a dozen people were shot over five days, and police are trying to figure out if they're dealing with a gang war.

"We are going to have stepped up patrols in those areas," said SFPD Public Information Officer Sgt. Danielle Newman. "We are going to do a lot of visual presence in the areas, making sure everybody knows we're out there."

Keith Zinn was known in the neighborhood as "Jigg." His friends say he did not deserve to die.

"He was just taking his daughter to school every day and then go home to be with his wife," said Bayview resident Agida Lampkins. "And they killed him."

Zinn was shot Monday morning on Ironwood Way and Catalina Street, a corner facing a big new apartment complex in the Bayview.

He died later at San Francisco General, where family and friends gathered.

Residents in the Bayview also heard about a murder early Monday in the Sunnydale housing developments in nearby Ingleside.

Almost everyone we spoke to knew about the spate of shootings in the past five days, almost all in the Bayview. Eleven people were shot in seven separate shootings. Four died.

The first shooting was in the afternoon of July 3, when two people were shot on Connecticut Street near 23rd. The violence continued Saturday with three shootings nearby, three more on Sunday. Two more fatal shootings happened Monday morning -- one in the Sunnydale housing developments and the last one on Ironwood Way.

Herbert only wanted his first name used. He's been in the Bayview for some 24 years. He's seen this kind of violence before.

"For the summertime, it seems like this is when the violence really picks up and it could be because a lot of the young people are not working, not doing anything," he said.

Police say they have yet to find evidence that links the shootings together. What's more, the victims don't seem to have ties to each other.

Anyone with information about the killings is asked to call the Police Department's homicide detail at (415) 553-1145. People can also call an anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or send a tip by text message to TIP411 with "SFPD" in the message.