A man who was suspected of being armed with a knife and making threats was wheeled out of an apartment building in the Mission District Thursday afternoon after a lengthy standoff with police.
Video from the scene showed more than a dozen San Francisco police and fire vehicles, including multiple SWAT units, parked near 24th and Harrison streets. Yellow caution tape blocked off the sidewalk along 24th as passersby stood and watched from the corner.
The standoff started around 8:30 a.m. when police said they received a report of a man armed with a knife making threats. Hours later, police were still trying to coax him out of the building.
A man wearing a dark-colored T-shirt could be seen from the street shouting from an open window in a third-floor apartment at 3001 24th St. Police were seen lowering a blue ball on a string from the building’s roof toward that apartment unit as drones flew overhead.
An official using a loudspeaker on the street was heard telling the man to stop crying and come outside.
“We just want to make sure you’re OK,” the official said at one point.
The building, Casa de la Misión, is a permanent supportive housing community for formerly homeless seniors. Mercy Housing, the nonprofit that manages the building, did not immediately respond to The Standard’s request for comment.
The owner of the nearby Temo’s Cafe said the man, an elderly immigrant from Russia, regularly comes to her business. She often gives him free coffee because he says he doesn’t have money. Every few days, he brings her flowers. A recent bouquet was sitting on the counter Thursday.
As the standoff stretched into the afternoon hours, police seemed to make little progress in encouraging the man to come out of the building. Then around 3:20 p.m., the man appeared to throw a bottle out the window.
A few minutes later, smoke was seen coming out of the unit as people outside on the street began to cough.
Shortly thereafter, police wheeled the man out of the building and then transferred him into an ambulance. As he was being pushed across the street, the man raised his left fist in the air.
A police department representative did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the smoke. An officer at the scene wouldn’t say whether police used gas to force the man out of the apartment. He then asked a reporter if he had an extra mask.
This is a developing story.