At around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, gunfire erupted at SoMa nightclub 330 Ritch. The shooting started inside the club then moved outside to the street. A separate, but related shooting happened just down the block at 3rd and Brannan. Three people in total were shot. Two of them are in stable condition, one is in serious condition. According to ABC 7, "The [latter] victim's sister ... tells us he may be paralyzed."
The violence started, as it always does, with an argument inside the club. "A small shoving match broke out and then all of a sudden it grew into a big altercation which led to one gunshot," one club patron tells ABC 7.
No arrests have been made. However, as the Chronicle goes on to note, "The victims were not identified, but police said all three were East Bay residents in their 20s."
According to SF Examiner, the shooting was a "rare" thing to have happened inside the nightclub.
Though rare, shootings have taken place inside San Francisco nightlife venues. In 2009, two men were shot inside Broadway nightclub Impala; in 2010, a 23-year-old man was shot inside Cafe Cocomo in Potrero Hill.[SFPD Officer Carlos Manfredi] said 330 Ritch is not commonly a venue that draws violence. The Entertainment Commission, which regulates nightlife, is expected to investigate the club and hold a public hearing this week with its owners. Requests for comment from club management were not returned Sunday.
However, as one angry SFGate commenter points out, this isn't the first time a shooting went down at the beleagured nightclub. Also, following Saturday morning's shooting, a 330 Ritch neighbor sent SFist a terse letter he had penned to SFPD back in 2011 about the mischief happening outside the nightclub. He asked us to reprint it here:
Dear Captain McDonagh, Bob Davis, and Justin Gebb -We live across the street from the alleyway that the club 330 Ritch is on and are becoming concerned with the increasingly bad behavior exhibited by the patrons leaving the club at closing time. When we moved into our building 2 years ago we never really heard any noise or had a complaint about the clubs and bars in the area. However, recently we have been hearing people yelling, fighting, and partying in the streets after the club has closed (or actually when the bar has to be shut down). This activity usually will run from 1:30-2:30AM or later. Unfortunately, our building security doesn't seem to have the authority to break up these mini-parties when they are not on our property.
Thankfully last night, as I was calling the police to report the latest issue, we saw a police cruiser show up at 3rd and Townsend to break up the party and fight that had been going on for 30 min. We usually see people congregating on Townsend trying to keep the party going or just camping out in their cars playing really loud music. Since this is a recent activity, the police may not be as aware of the events going on in this area yet, but I am hopeful the word gets out and this type of behavior can be caught earlier so nobody else gets hurt in a fight or worse.
I will also contact the club owner, but I thought I would bring it to your attention as well. We really appreciate your attention to this matter and please contact me with any questions.