A shooting Monday evening near Mission and Ninth streets left one man hospitalized with life-threatening injuries and ended with cops shooting the suspect dead after a standoff, San Francisco police said.
The altercation unfolded over hours in SoMa. Officers first found a victim with gunshot wounds being treated by paramedics just before 5 p.m.
Family members identified the victim as Martin Olive, owner and founder of the Vapor Room, a dispensary at 79 Ninth St. His father, Diego Olive, told The Standard that Martin was in “bad shape, but not terrible shape.”
He declined to share details, asking for privacy.
The suspect shot and killed by police after a standoff in a nearby building was identified on Thursday as Cheasarak Chong, a 34-year-old city resident, by the San Francisco medical examiner. Police said he had refused to surrender.
“The suspect failed to comply and refused to exit the building,” the SFPD said in an emailed statement. “During this contact, an officer-involved shooting occurred.”
Chong was “suffering from life-threatening injuries” when officers entered the building; he was later pronounced dead by paramedics, police said. Officers recovered a firearm at the scene.
A video shared with The Standard shows two unknown people holding a piece of clothing to the bloodied face of the man identified as the dispensary owner as he cried, “Oh, my God, help me.” A heavy trail of blood flowed down the sidewalk next to the man, who was lying on his back.
Go Go Market & Deli cashier Sultan Alrayashi said he heard five gunshots around 4:50 p.m.
Chong had also been previously been acquitted of an attempted murder charge in 2018, after stabbing a person who attacked him in the Tenderloin in July of that year, according to the public defender’s office.
In an Instagram post, Olive’s friend Tina Gordon, a cannabis cultivator in Humboldt County, spoke to her followers Tuesday as she drove to San Francisco after learning of the shooting.
According to Gordon, Olive was standing outside the shop during a smoke break when a person rode up on an electric bicycle and fired seven shots. Bullets struck him in the face, ear, wrist, and lung.
“It’s a total miracle that he is alive,” Gordon said of Olive. She called for community support as he faces a lengthy recovery.
“Martin’s going to need a lot of support, friendship, and patience to get through this,” she said. “He’s going to need love and dedication and devotion.”
According to a GoFundMe campaign set up by a friend, Olive previously survived a brain aneurysm. He is in the ICU but is expected to survive, the page said.
A person who claims Chong is her brother has also set up a GoFundMe campaign, which says the family lost contact with Chong eight year ago and a funeral service will be held on Feb. 12.
“The circumstance of his passing has shattered us all,” the GoFundMe said. “We can no longer ask him all of the questions we’ve held onto. Until the day we meet again, may you rest in peace my brother.”
The incident is being investigated by the San Francisco district attorney’s office, SFPD’s Investigative Services Division, the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office, SFPD’s Internal Affairs Division, and the Department of Police Accountability.
Police announced they will hold a town hall meeting about the shooting within 10 days as part of their commitment to transparency and accountability.
This comes five weeks after San Francisco police’s Dec. 19 shooting of a man working as an armed Dior security guard who had crashed into two pedestrians and a cyclist hours earlier near Union Square. Video released by police in a town hall meeting showed six officers firing their weapons in the fatal confrontation outside a storefront.