San Francisco police hold town hall meeting after Halloween shooting

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Shortly after midnight on Halloween night, as the Castro's massive party was winding down, an officer and a suspect in a stolen car exchanged gunfire.

Now, a week after the shooting, the San Francisco Police Department is hosting a townhall meeting at the Eureka Valley Community Center to brief the public on the incident.

The shooting, which happened at 18th and Diamond Streets, left both the officer and suspect in critical condition. The officer has since been upgraded to stable, and the suspect was booked from his hospital bed on attempted murder and other charges related to the incident.

RELATED: Officials say stolen car may have led to Castro shootout

The investigation is still active, and police are looking for two or three possible accomplices who carjacked a taxicab near Castro and Market just after the shooting.

The carjackers left the cab in the middle of Oakwood Street, an alley near Mission Delores Park.

Joe Vargas, who lives in a nearby apartment, said the carjackers jumped over a fence in the alley and disappeared into the night.

The cab company tracked the car down using GPS, which allowed police to locate the taxi soon after it was abandoned.

Some Castro residents say Halloween in the neighborhood has gotten out of control in recent years, drawing undesirables to an annual celebration that used to be fun and safe.

Jim Knight, a long-time Castro resident, lives across the street from where the shooting occurred.

"All of a sudden people were getting stabbed, graffiti was everywhere, windows were getting broken," he said. "This stuff never happened when it was just the neighborhood people."