A righteous SD shoot...in San Francisco?

Whither Prop H now? I can almost guarantee that this story will disappear from the local news without a ripple, but it still warms my heart.

From the Wednesday, June 28th San Francisco Chronicle

SAN FRANCISCO
3 suspects shot in robbery attempt

Police are looking for a man who turned the tables on three would-be robbers and shot them early Tuesday in the Tenderloin.

Police say the three first tried to rob a man at 3:30 a.m. at Turk and Leavenworth streets, but he was able to escape. The man then watched as the suspects confronted a couple and tried to grab a backpack from them, police said.

The man with the backpack pulled a gun and shot the three, police said. One man was wounded in the leg and was quickly arrested, and a second man wounded in the arm and buttocks was found around the corner.

The third man, wounded in the buttocks and groin, went to the Tenderloin Task Force police station for help.

"You've got to go somewhere," Inspector John Peterson said. "Where he was shot, he needed the help.''

The three men each were charged with two counts of attempted robbery. Their names were not immediately released.

"It's rare to have a victim be armed and use the weapon successfully on all three perpetrators,'' (emphasis mine) Peterson said. "We would like to talk to that victim to hear the rest of the story.''
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Direct link to story on SFGate.com

Favorite line:

"You've got to go somewhere," Inspector John Peterson said. "Where he was shot, he needed the help.''

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Yeah, groin shot? I'll bet he needed help. In the, uhm, 'twig and berries' sort of funny. In the femoral artery, I'm surprised he didn't bleed out ASAP.

Oh and in case anyone is curious, the Tenderloin is a very unpleasant part of town, and has been pretty much since the 1800's. It got the name from the fact that the SFPD had to pay it's officers more to patrol that part of town and so then they could afford to eat that choice cut of meat... or so local legend goes.

Yes, the onerous Prop H has been overturned, but the City Board O' Supervisors have said that they will appeal the decision.
And unfortunately, incidents like this will have zero impact on their mindset.

I'm thinking that the armed victim will most likely never be identified; the urban equivalent of Shoot Shovel and Shut-up would be Shoot Scoot and Shut up.

Interesting dilemma; do you come forward and possibly (very likely) face charges for the CCW and/or the use of it or do you just stash the weapon, lose the backpack, avoid that part of town and swear your female friend to double-secret silence?

My take? Well if it was me, I'd be tempted to dispose of the gun down the deepest darkest hole I could find, hope that the bad guys didn't get too good a look at me and get on with my life.

Tough call though. I can't imagine SFPD and the DA being very sympathetic to the victim with the firearm. Part of me says, well, 3:30am, in that part of town and carrying (almost definitely without a permit), the shooter may very well not be the most upstanding citizen. But that in no way takes away his basic right of self-defense. Very tough call.

I'm going to stick with my initial thought that this was a righteous shoot by an armed citizen against multiple assailants. Good for him.

One criminal shoots 3 other criminals

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This was my thought as well; while I'd like to believe that he was a altruistic young volunteer for a all night flop house and soup kitchen hurrying home so he could rest up for another day down at the SPCA helping the little kitties and puppies find loving homes, and his back pack contained only the remains of his PB and J sammich, thermos of low-fat milk and some comic books, that his female companion was his girlfriend of 12 months that had just got off of work at the local old folks home and that they were only holding hands and he was saving up his meager wages for a promise ring and just happened to be carrying his lawfully purchased firearm that he was transporting legally with a trigger lock and the ammunition kept separate in accordance with state law...

...this may be optimistic.