In recent days, San Francisco has seen three young men die violently, all in areas overseen by a San Francisco Supervisor who has been taken to task for making what critics describe as an "empty gesture" in the fight against crime.

Officers from the San Francisco Police Department responded to the 900 block of Connecticut Street in Potrero Hill at 10:42 a.m. Thursday after reports of shots fired. They discovered 28-year-old San Francisco man Paris Raynaldo lying dead on the street, in the city's 24th homicide.

It was a more confusing scene Sunday afternoon, when two men were shot at while riding motorcycles near Cashmere Street and La Salle Avenue in the Bayview. At 5:15 p.m., SFPD was called to the scene after their ShotSpotter system sent an alert, says SFPD spokesperson Officer Gordon Shyy.

Shyy says investigators believe the men "were riding around on motorcycles and encountered gun fire. Both attempted to flee the area and crashed." According to Shyy, it's unknown if the motorcyclists were targeted, or if this was a random attack.

At least one of the men was indeed shot, Shyy says, but cautions that it's up to the San Francisco medical examiner to determine if the men died of gunfire or as a result of injuries sustained during the crash.

According to a witness who spoke to KTVU, the men, who were riding what the broadcast station characterizes as "dirt bikes," were headed down the street when "pop, pop, pop, nine times and then I saw the boy fall off the bike."

All this comes just days after District 10 (which covers both Potrero Hill and the Bayview) Supervisor Malia Cohen called a City Hall press conference demanding a "cease-fire" in her neighborhood, and announcing her intention to form the "Gun Violence Prevention Task Force."

The move was swiftly critiqued by law enforcement officials like SF Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, who told the Examiner that "when an area like the Bayview is suffering the absence of permanent solutions to its most vexing problems, another task force could be seen as just another diversion."

Responding to that criticism in an op-ed in Sunday's Examiner, Cohen says "I am proud to have worked with leaders of the faith community and with law enforcement to develop solutions to reduce this violence," and cites a gun buyback program and multiple job fairs for area residents.

Cohen says that her task force "will include members of the community from each district highlighting the problem of gun violence as a citywide epidemic and not specific to the Bayview district as many reports indicate."

Meanwhile, as of Monday morning, SFPD says they have not identified any suspects in either the Potrero Hill or Bayview shootings, nor have any suspects been identified in either case.

According to Cohen legislative aide Mawuli Tugbenyoh, the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force is expected to convene some time in the fall of 2014.

[SF Examiner]
[ABC7]
[KTVU]