For those of you still concerned about last week's officer-involved shooting in the Mission and the subsequent protest and vandalism at Mission Police Station and elsewhere, we thought we should update you on the victim/suspect. 22-year-old Oliver Barcenas, a known Norteno gang member who had only recently gotten out of prison for the second time, was the one shot by officers after they say he reached for a TEC-9 pistol in his waistband and began raising it toward them as he fled down 14th Street. Police chief Greg Suhr said in a community meeting Monday night that Barcenas was likely headed to commit a revenge killing that very night, avenging the death of a fellow gang member near Garfield Square on September 16.

Officers from the gang task force were patrolling on the night of September 20 looking for youths violating the curfew imposed by Operation Night Light, the Juvenile Probation program launched last summer to address the uptick in gun violence in the neighborhood. According to police they spotted and recognized Barcenas, who had just a few weeks ago gotten released from prison for a parole violation, and he'd been on parole since February relating to his conviction in a 2009 gang shootout that left a 15-year-old passerby injured.

Many a kneejerk protester showed up at Mission Police Station just hours after the shooting having apparently heard the false rumor that an unarmed assailant had been shot in the back and killed while fleeing police. A bunch of opportunistic anarchists proceeded to use the occasion to vandalize elsewhere in the Mission, protests which continued the following night as well.

Barcenas remains hospitalized, and he'll be charged once again with violating his parole. He may end up returning to prison for a very long time under California's three-strikes law, because this would be his third strike.

There will be a second community meeting on Monday, October 1 at 6 p.m. at the Good Samaritan Community Resource Center at 1294 Potrero Ave. Chief Suhr will be there.

And to the badass kids with their black masks and bandannas who spray-painted the word "Killers" on the outside of the police station and ran around the neighborhood shouting "Fuck the police," perhaps an introduction to an armed gang member is in order.

[CBS]
[Examiner]
[Mission Local]