Heart-stopping dashcam video shows car-to-car gun battle near San Francisco's Pier 39
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A heart-stopping new video shows the moments gunfire sent people running and ducking for cover along San Francisco's Embarcadero near Pier 39.
The car-to-car gun battle which injured six people, four of them bystanders, started near Pier 39 and then came down the Embarcadero south to Embarcadero and Howard Streets.
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One man has been arrested, according to Supervisor Aaron Peskin. He is in the hospital in critical condition, with a gunshot wound to the chest.
Police say he was in the black SUV involved in the shooting.
A woman who was in the SUV has been detained as well and is also in the hospital. Peskin says both are from Pittsburg.
A new video recorded by a dashcam on Sunday night, just blocks away from Pier 39, shows the terrifying moments when gunshots rang out.
It captures people on the elevated walkway and street below running to safety. Other people can be seen ducking for cover behind parked cars.
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Seconds later, as the vehicle approaches the intersection of North Point and Embarcadero, the suspect vehicles, a black SUV and a white sedan blast through the intersection.
On the other side of the street, a group of four cyclists ride across the intersection, after the first one crosses the street, the black SUV races right through them.
The last cyclist in the group can be seen dropping their bike and racing to help the injured cyclists, whom we now know to be a 10-year-old girl and 16-year-old girl, according to San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott.
Seconds later, as the driver makes a turn, two bikes can be seen lying in the middle of Embarcadero and a group of people huddled around the median.
Minutes later, the dashcam captures a police car racing to the scene, followed by a fire truck.
"We were in the middle of a song, families surrounding us, and all the sudden, we start hearing pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, and it sounded like fireworks," Megan Schoenbohm, a witness said.
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Schoenbohm was performing at the entrance of Pier 39 with her husband when gunfire erupted and they dropped to the ground.
"In the moment, it just seemed like it just kept going and then it just stopped and then suddenly, Pier 39 was just, everybody had gone into the storefronts or ducked behind things or dropped to the ground," Schoenbohm said. "I mean it was just like stillness."
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown says these types of incidents is not particular to San Francisco.
"It's another black eye for the city but it is not unusual for incidents of a similar nature to occur in any major American city," Brown said.
Brown isn't shying away from the camera's in light of San Francisco's latest concerning incident. The 89-year-old is advocating for his city, saying this isn't just a San Francisco problem.
"When somebody says to me, 'how do you stop that?' If the guns were not in the hands of the people it wouldn't happen," said Brown.
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Brown believes Sunday's shooting is further proof in the need for another nationwide assault weapons ban.
"They do it by having legislators both at the state level and the national level do what Dianne Feinstein did in Washington and what Mike Roos did in Sacramento and was signed at the time by the George D. Mason and it was signed by Clinton when she did it and it needs to be repeated," said Brown.
San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safai calls Sunday a "heart-wrenching" day for the city.
"It's like an old west shootout as they're driving down shooting at one another, with no regard for surrounding human life and safety," Safai said. "I mean, this just adds to the sense that San Francisco is a bit out of control and it is, admittedly."
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And while police believe this is an isolated incident, Supervisor Safai says public safety in the city needs to be prioritized to help get things under control, which he hopes to get through an incoming ballot initiative next year that will focus on increasing the total number of police officers over the next few years.
"These are things that I think feed into the perception and the ability of people to believe that they can behave this way in our city," he said. "We have ignored our police department for the last five years where we are severely understaffed, severely, by independent analysis, this is not something in my mind that's debatable."
Police say they are still looking for the people in the white sedan involved in the gun battle.
Chief Scott says he believes there are many other videos out there that can help police paint a better picture of what happened on Sunday evening.
If you do have video of this incident, you are asked to call the San Francisco Police Department's tip line at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD. You may remain anonymous.
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