A man who was shot multiple times outside a home later raided by police and federal officials has died, turning an already murky situation even murkier.
It was 2 a.m. on Friday, April 1 when a man since identified by the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office as 27-year-old Christopher Perez-Melo was shot while standing on the first block of Teddy Avenue in Visitacion Valley.
According to witnesses at the scene, Perez-Melo was shot multiple times in the torso, then was picked up by three men, put into a silver BMW, and driven to an area hospital. That's where he died Tuesday night, ABC 7 reports.
Less than 12 hours after last Friday's shooting, agents with the FBI and officers with the San Francisco Police Department raided the home in front of which Perez-Melo was shot. As it turns out, it's a known haunt of Stanislav Petrov, the man best known as the subject of a November video, in which Petrov was beaten by Alameda County Sheriff's deputies in a Mission alley. During the raid on the residence, Petrov was arrested, and remains in custody on unknown charges in a sealed federal indictment, the Ex reports.
Petrov appeared in a closed U.S. District courtroom both Monday and Wednesday, as controversy continues to swirl around the November incident, including recent allegations that a third deputy used items stolen from Petrov's vehicle to bribe witnesses to the beating.
But what connection does Petrov's mysterious post-raid arrest (which wasn't even the first time he got busted at that location, ABC 7 reports) have with Perez-Melo's shooting? That's still unclear.
The Ex reports first that the SFPD still doesn't know "if the homicide was connected to the arrest of Stanislav Petrov," then says that "the FBI has said [Petrov's] arrest was not related to the shooting." ABC 7, however,, reports that "FBI sources said it's unclear what if any connection Stanislav Petrov and a woman named Milagro Moraga ... have to with what has now become a homicide investigation."
These mixed messages are similar to those the day of the raid, when the Chron reported that "the FBI action was related to a 2 a.m. shooting in front of the house" even as ABC 7 then reported that "the latest raid is independent of the overnight shooting." When contacted by SFist in an effort to clarify these conflicting reports, an FBI spokesperson said that as Petrov's case is an ongoing federal investigation, they could not comment on this homicide.
So in many ways, we don't know much more than we did before. As reported by the Ex, at present it’s unknown what Petrov has been charged with. The one fact we do have is that what was once "just" a shooting has become a homicide: San Francisco's 11th for 2016, following a fatal shooting Monday evening near San Bruno and Silver Avenues.
Previously: Stanislav Petrov, Victim In Videotaped Beating By Deputies, Arrested In Connection With Visitacion Valley Shooting
Mission District Beating Deputy Allegedly Used Stolen Items To Bribe Witnesses