Gang Members Face Federal Death Sentence In San Francisco Mass Shooting
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Two San Francisco gang members were indicted by a federal grand jury on gun charges Thursday in a mass shooting that left one man dead and four others wounded, including a man left paralyzed by his injuries, in the city's Fillmore District in March 2019.
U.S. Attorney David Anderson said 28-year-old Robert Manning and 26-year-old Jamare Coats will be charged with felons in possessions of a firearm in the fatal shooting. Those charges, Anderson said, carry with them the death penalty.
"The maximum penalty for the charges we are announcing today is death," Anderson told reporters.
The gun battle outside a memorial service being held at the Fillmore Heritage Center on March 23rd claimed the life of 25-year-old Misterdee Simons III. The gunfire also left a 27-year-old man paralyzed from the waist down and injured a 19-year-old man, a 50-year-old man and a 51-year-old woman.
"This event was heinous -- an exchange of gunfire on city streets on a busy night by members of rival gangs," said San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott. "Bystanders were injured by gunfire. The individuals involved in this incident engaged in a deadly shootout and they did so without any regard for the lives of those innocent and unsuspecting people around them."
"These individuals are documented gang members and convicted felons who have a history of committing violent crimes involving the use of firearms," Scott continued.
Scott said his department sought the aid of the U.S Justice Department in the Fillmore shooting investigation because of the alleged gunmen's lengthy criminal history.
FBI Special Agent in Charge of the San Francisco office John F. Bennett called the shooting "completely unacceptable" and was in agreement to bring federal agents from the FBI's Safe Street Task Force into the investigation.
"Several of those left injured were completely innocent bystanders just out on a Saturday night in the busy Fillmore District," Bennett said. "An event like this is completely unacceptable. The streets of San Francisco cannot and will not be used as a playground for gang warfare...Those want-to-be kings of the street don't have a throne waiting for them, they have a federal prison cell waiting for them."
