Residents of San Francisco's Bernal Heights meet after gun battle at Airbnb rental

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ByLilian Kim KGO logo
Thursday, October 26, 2017
SF residents meet after gun battle at Airbnb rental
Witnesses are telling ABC7 News what they saw during a shootout outside an Airbnb home earlier this month. The listing has been removed, but residents are still rattled.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Bullet holes are everywhere on Banks Street -- in cars, in windows, and in homes. It was the result of a party in San Francisco's Bernal Heights on October 14 that got out of hand; a party hosted by renters of a house they found on Airbnb.

"Automatic gunfire broke out from there so I jumped back in the house," said resident Ann Golden.

She and her neighbors are still shaken after having witnessed a gun battle right in front of their homes.

"I did not see the cars that came roaring up the street spraying gunfire, I did not see what my neighbors saw which was two young men with hand guns firing back in that direction," said Golden.

San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen adds, "It sounded absolutely and utterly terrifying."

On Wednesday night, Ronen informed the community that the property owner, who lives overseas, has been banned from short term rental sites and that Airbnb promises to pay for all property damage.

As for the possibility that this will happen again on another property, Ronen said chances are slim. Unregistered rentals that include properties with absentee landlords are being pulled out of the system, a process that should conclude in January.

"A neighborhood like Bernal Heights is a residential. It should not be filled with mini-hotels," said Ronen.

Neighbors, meanwhile, are being told that if they see something, say something.

"We'll keep an eye out and try to make sure things are on the up and up," said resident Cameron Wright.

As for the shooting, police say they've made no arrests but are still investigating.

Airbnb provided a statement to ABC7 News on Wednesday: "There have been over 200 million guest arrivals in Airbnb listings and negative incidents are extremely rare. We have zero tolerance for this type of behavior and upon learning of this incident, we permanently banned this guest from our platform and suspended the listing. Additionally, we have reached out to law enforcement to offer our assistance and are in contact with city officials. The overwhelming majority of Airbnb hosts and guests are good neighbors and respectful travelers, but when issues happen to arise, we work to make things right.

Regarding the neighbors that were impacted, we are currently working to support them under our Host Protection Insurance program which will cover property damage that resulted from this incident."