When an Outer Sunset resident opened his garage door to roll in his recycling bin last Monday, the last thing he expected was to get into a brawl. But that's what happened when a man armed with a gun tackled him as he walked back into his home.
It all happened at 8:45 a.m. last Monday: Bill Oxidean, the man in the white shirt you'l see int the video below, had just opened the garage door to his home on the 1300 block of La Playa Street, which is between the busy Outer Sunset streets of Irving and Judah, just steps from always-packed Java Beach cafe.
However, the heavy traffic in the area apparently didn't matter to the home invader, who you see in a grey hoodie in the video below. The man rushed into the garage, gun in hand, and began to assault the Oxidean. Here's the video of their altercation, which was released by the San Francisco Police Department last week.
"He came at me with the gun, the gun was out, the gun was full force," Oxidean told ABC7.
"If you can see, I'm reaching for the gun, immediately, the first thing I wanted is control of the weapon."
Eventually, Oxidean managed to wrest the gun from his attacker, ran out of the garage, and turned it on the suspect.
"I wanted to get a safe distance, and I drew down on him and the weapon was jammed unfortunately," Oxidean said. The suspect then fled, police say.
According to SFPD spokesperson Officer Carlos Manfredi, there was no clip in the gun. But, of course, Oxidean didn't know that when he fought off the suspect.
“The victim was lucky — you don’t usually see an outcome like that,” Manfredi told the Chron.
“The gun had no bullets, or no magazine was attached.”
“We don’t know why this victim was targeted, or if it was a crime of opportunity,” Manfredi says.
“We want to make sure the assailant is taken off the streets. Even if he doesn’t have this gun, he may have another one.”
The suspect is described as an older black male, with dreadlocks, as you can see in the video. Manfredi asks that if you recognize the suspect, or have any additional information on the crime, you call SFPD's anonymous tip line at 415-575-4444.