A teen enjoying an afternoon at Dolores Park was attacked and robbed by a gang of suspects Wednesday, only the latest such incident in what appears to be an increasingly troubled area of the city.
According to the San Francisco Police Department, the 17 year old victim was at Dolores Park from 2-6:35 p.m. Wednesday. At some point during that visit — the SFPD was not able to be more specific as of publication time — a group of twelve people approached the victim.
Police say the dastardly dozen "then assaulted him and took his property," including his cell phone, his cash, his wallet, and (perhaps most oddly) his belt.
All twelve then fled in an unknown direction, police say, and haven't been seen since.
Attacks and muggings by groups of people have become distressingly commonplace at Dolores Park in recent months, with a three-on-one mugging in August and a five-on-one chase and beating in the park in May.
Most notable, perhaps, is an August 3 shooting in the park that injured three people, an attack that began when as many as six men stormed the bridge to the park, masked by bandanas.
As of publication time, no arrests have been made in any of these cases, and police seem stymied on how to prevent incidents like these in the future. According to an SFPD source who spoke with Mission Local following the shooting, "You’ll see a ramped-up effort for a month, two months. And then it’s back to business."
"You can’t sustain it," the police source says. "Cops, at this point, are like firefighters. There’s a big fire at Dolores Park? Go put it out. Monitor it a while. And then, in the future, you and I will be having this same conversation.”
Related: Dolores Park Neighbors Say Footbridge Has Become Magnet For Hard Drug Sales