Suspect In Warfield Shooting Linked to Notorious Rainbow Crew

The woman arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting a security guard Friday night/early Saturday outside the Warfield in San Francisco has ties to the notorious retail theft ring known as the Rainbow Crew.

The more we learn about the event that was happening at the Warfield Theatre on Friday night, the more that a chaotic picture emerges that ultimately led to the shooting death of 47-year-old Ulysses Tykee Davis. And now we learn via District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, speaking to the Chronicle, that the suspect, 32-year-old Shakia Vanderbilt, was apparently a member of the notorious Rainbow Crew, who terrorized Union Square retail stores with smash-and-grab-style thefts years before such gang-style thefts made national news.

Originally dubbed the Rainbow Girls in the press before they appeared to add a few non-female members, and so-named for the colorful hair and clothing worn by them and their apparent leader, the group of young suspects were seen committing brazen robberies at Union Square luxury stores in the early 2010s — and at least once at the Target on Geary. And as Jenkins notes, the crew was linked to around $1 million in retail thefts across the state a decade ago.

Vanderbilt herself was arrested following an alleged theft at the TJ Maxx in Daly City in 2014, and she and a second suspect were accused of stabbing a security guard who tried to intervene as they left the store.

She was also arrested along with other crew members in 2017 following an hourslong chase in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties that stemmed from a robbery earlier that day in Los Angeles, and the suspects were found with $15,000 worth of stolen property in their vehicle.

SFist reported in 2016 that 16 members of the crew had been charged in San Francisco in connection with 23 retail thefts totaling around $200,000.

Davis was shot just before 1 am Saturday just as a crowd was rushing out of the Warfield Theatre due to someone having sprayed bear mace inside. That someone may have been Vanderbilt, and Davis's brother-in-law told KTVU that Davis had been escorting a "rowdy" woman, possibly Vanderbilt, out of the theater when she pulled a gun and shot him in the back.

The event at the Warfield that night was a live shoot for Baddies USA: Chapter 3, which is the tenth season in the Baddies franchise — a reality show on the Zeus network which is itself a spiritual successor to Bad Girls Club, which aired on the Oxygen network from 2006 to 2017. Baddies is produced by and stars Oakland native and former Bad Girls Club cast member Natalie Nunn, and it can best be described as something in the vein of the Real Housewives franchise, if the Real Housewives was predominantly African American and a lot more chaotic, aggressive, and full of physical assault.

Episodes often consist of cast members new and old attending club parties and concerts and getting into altercations with one another.

The first season of Baddies launched in 2021, and Nunn has been credited with popularizing the term "baddie" to refer to a confident woman with a large social media following

An episode of the tenth season was reportedly being shot in the Warfield, and staffers there said that the venue was about half-full. One bartender described attendees jumping over the bar during the exodus and stealing items — presumably liquor bottles — with one person allegedly taking a swing at a bartender.

It is not clear whether Vanderbilt was an invited guest of the franchise Friday night.

The show's typical chaos spilled onto the street Saturday morning with Davis being shot, and people from inside the venue seen arguing with police officers and intervening in the efforts of arriving EMTs.

Davis, who was known to friends and family as "Bear," was working the event but his wife and two of his six children were also reportedly in attendance, and witnessed the shooting.

Previously: Bear Mace Allegedly Sprayed Inside the Warfield Prior to Fatal Shooting of Security Guard