Two suspects have been charged in connection with a crash that destroyed a parklet outside a popular bar on Super Bowl Sunday following a police chase.
Taylor Ross, 27, of San Francisco faces felony charges, including seven counts each of evading an officer and hit-and-run resulting in injury, as well as three counts each of hit-and-run resulting in property damage and resisting, obstructing, or delaying an officer; evading by driving opposite of traffic; reckless driving; vehicle theft; and receiving stolen property.
The other suspect, Eureeka Abrams, 29, of Bay Point faces two charges of resisting, obstructing, or delaying an officer.
The suspects also have a laundry list of outstanding criminal warrants, the San Francisco Police Department said Monday.
Ross has outstanding warrants from Alameda County for assault with a deadly weapon, the Berkeley Police Department for grand theft, Sacramento County for grand theft, and the San Pablo Police Department for burglary, conspiracy, and carjacking.
Abrams has an outstanding warrant from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys division for grand theft.
“What should have been a routine felony vehicle stop escalated into Ms. Ross and Ms. Abrams putting innocent lives at risk due to their actions,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said, vowing “consequences for their futile effort to evade the law that put countless lives in danger” while thanking police and first responders for their care of victims.
Two people were critically injured and four suffered moderate injuries when the vehicle struck the parklet shortly after 3:30 p.m. Sunday outside The Napper Tandy Irish pub near 24th Street and South Van Ness Avenue, a San Francisco Fire Department spokesperson told The Standard.
All six were transported by ambulance to hospitals. Fire crews, including an engine, truck, and rescue unit, responded to the scene.
Emergency services personnel redirected traffic around the crash site on 24th Street while treating the injured.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Police said the driver was fleeing the scene of a burglary around Buckingham Way and Winston Drive, where officers responded at 3:05 p.m. Cops tried to stop the car, but the driver failed to yield.
A chase ensued, leading cops nearly seven miles, from around Stonestown Mall to a pub in the Mission.
According to court documents, Ross was behind the wheel and Abrams was one of two passengers inside the vehicle when police on Winston Street realized it had been reported stolen and approached to stop it shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday. After allegedly fleeing officers and driving through traffic, onto Muni train tracks, and entering Interstate 280 before exiting at San Jose Avenue, Ross drove into a gas station on Mission Street before sideswiping a truck’s passenger-side mirror, crashing into a traffic light, and hitting another vehicle along Mission.
Ross allegedly entered the opposite lane of traffic to avoid stopped vehicles before crashing into the parklet at 24th Street and South Van Ness Avenue. Officers who responded detained Ross and Abrams, who allegedly tried to run away after the crash and ignored commands to stop.
Folsom police told The Standard on Wednesday that Ross was arrested in an Oct. 2, 2020, incident in which officers pursued a vehicle along Highway 50 within Sacramento County. That 18-mile chase, which reportedly reached speeds of more than 120 mph, ended in a collision that sent a pregnant woman to a hospital. Police arrested Ross and two other San Francisco residents, recovering $4,800 in merchandise allegedly stolen from Walgreens stores the same day.
A bystander to Sunday’s incident said at least a few police cars were tailing the vehicle that crashed.
“Yeah, there was definitely a chase,” Peter Paulson told reporters about an hour after the crash.
Paulson, who lives near the bar, said he and his wife almost sat in the shaded dining area, but some in his party wanted to sit in the sun.
“That was our saving grace,” he said.
“I was really focused on the game,” he added. “I just heard the tires squeal out. I didn’t hear any cop sirens. … Maybe they saw the cops and got spooked. Maybe they had some reason to not want to be around them and then sped away.”
Supervisor Jackie Fielder, whose district encompasses the Mission, said a child had been endangered.
“We don’t have all the details of the reasons for the vehicle pursuit by police,” she told The Standard at the scene. “But if it is a result of a pursuit for something less than a violent incident or a direct imminent threat to people’s lives, it’s worth asking whether this is worth sending six people to the hospital.”
On Tuesday, Fielder sent a letter of inquiry to San Francisco Police Department Chief Bill Scott, asking for details about decision-making on the chase and department policies, including whether drones or other technology could have been used, and accountability of the officers involved in the pursuit.
“Public safety requires holding all people accountable for the harm they cause, no matter who causes it,” Fielder said. “I am concerned for the safety of our community and want to ensure that the San Francisco Police Department is doing all that it can to avoid such an incident in the future.”
Terence Buckner, a city worker who’d left the parklet just minutes before the car barreled into it, echoed the sentiment.
“They need to slow down,” he said. “They’re able to cut that chase off.”
Buckner said he was sitting with a couple and child at the outdoor dining area but went inside to watch the game. Not 10 minutes later, he saw the car racing toward the restaurant.
“It was on three wheels,” he recounted. “One of the wheels was on fire. The passenger wheel on the front was on fire, literally.”
Buckner said a car show or automotive exhibition had damaged the parklet about a year ago, and the dining area had just been rebuilt.
This is the latest in a series of recent vehicular collisions with Mission bars and restaurants, including a Jan. 15 crash at the corner of Valencia and 26th that damaged the exterior of Dovre Club and left two people with minor injuries.
Collisions since November have damaged a Walgreens at 24th Street and Potrero Avenue, a grocery store at 26th and Guerrero streets, and a plant store at 21st and San Carlos streets.