The non-fatal shooting of an unidentified women in her 20s roiled the San Francisco State University campus Monday night, and the university’s supposedly slow response is drawing all manner of social media criticism. An unrelated power outage later in the evening sent tensions even higher, but that appears to be resolved.
The Chronicle reports that police arrived at 7:11 p.m. Monday night to Serrano Drive, just south of the campus, to find a woman shot in the upper torso. She’s now hospitalized, and her injuries are not life-threatening. KGO adds that the victim did know her alleged shooter, described as a “man in his 20s.” The suspect fled the scene and remains at large.
I am so unbelievably disappointed in @SFSU and their police department. To be hung up on when I asked how to escort 150 students safely out of a classroom is unacceptable. Do better SF State. If there is a shooter across the street, we should still be concerned for our safety!!
— elyssia (@elyssiaandreaa) February 26, 2019
Night classes were apparently in session at the time of the shooting, prompting cries that the university could have been more proactive in alerting the campus to the situation.
SF State won’t give us a call when someone gets shot on campus but they have no problem waking us up 3 times at 5 AM in the morning to tell us the power went out
— mobbinmegan (@meganatwater) February 26, 2019
A power outage later in the evening added to the rough night at S.F. State, but KCBS reports that electricity was restored by 1 a.m.
(Stonestown, San Francisco) Shooting at SF State, Suspect Fled — Multiple streets are being shut down as police establish a crime scene and search for the suspect, who fled south from the campus. More here: https://t.co/d81fofC7JO #ProtectTheWorld #CitizenAppSF
— Citizen SF Bay Area (@CitizenApp_SF) February 26, 2019
While SF State is catching some flack for their handling of the incident, the crime-reporting app Citizen is tooting their own horn for the number of alerts they managed to post in the immediate wake. The company says in a Medium post, “By the time SFSU acknowledged the shooting incident at 9:09 PM, nearly 2 hours after the incident occurred, Citizen had already sent 15 updates and 5 safety notifications, alerting 9,985 people within a 3-mile radius, keeping the nearby community fully-informed of the shooting and gunman on the loose.”
Citizen uses a combination of user-submitted alerts and technicians monitoring police scanner calls. Law enforcement has expressed concerns that this model could also facilitate panic, and the spread of inaccurate information.
But you can’t blame SF State students for being on edge right now, after a previous power outage two weeks ago, reports of a university track coach accused of sex crimes with underage girls, and of course, an alleged shooter still at large. The school insists there is not currently an active threat on campus, but notes that students can call (415)-338-7200 to request a safety escort.
Related: KPIX News Crew Robbed, Shot at While Covering Oakland Teachers Strike [SFist]
