RIDDLED WITH BULLETS
Man fighting for life following San Francisco offramp "mafia-style execution"

By Tamara Barak

May 10, 2007

A man is fighting for his life after a gunman riddled his car with bullets on a San Francisco freeway offramp this afternoon -- an attack one witness described as a "mafia-style execution."

San Francisco police Sgt. Neville Gittens said the unnamed victim was taken by ambulance to San Francisco General Hospital after the 1:05 p.m. shooting at the end of the Interstate Highway 80 offramp and Fifth and Harrison streets.

The man suffered numerous gunshot wounds, including a shot to the chest, Gittens said.

Investigators do not believe it was a case of random violence.

"This appears to be a targeted shooting, based on the number of rounds fired," Gittens said.

Witnesses watched in shock as the gunman got out of his vehicle and fired multiple shots into the victim's blue Dodge Charger.

One young woman, who did not want to be named, said she was driving behind the Charger and a green vehicle and approaching the end of the ramp when traffic stopped at a light.

A man got out of the green vehicle and walked over to the Charger with a gun in his hand.

"He just opened fire until the light changed, then the green car sped up Fifth Street" toward downtown San Francisco, she said.

The two vehicles were driving at a normal speed as they approached the traffic light and there was nothing to indicate they were in dispute with one another, she said.

The woman said she pulled over and called 911. "I said, 'someone just got shot at an intersection.'"

Another witness, a woman who lives in the area and wished to remain anonymous, said she was walking on Fifth Street when she saw the shooting.

The gunman, a young, tall black man wearing a cap, was standing next to the victim's passenger-side window holding what appeared to be a semiautomatic rifle with two hands, she said.

"It looked like a mafia-style execution," she said. After seeing about four shots, she sprinted down an alley. She could hear eight to 10 more shots as she was running, she said.

When she emerged, the gunman was gone. Medical personnel arrived and placed the man onto a stretcher.

"He was completely limp," she said.

The victim's car remained in the middle of the intersection this afternoon, its rear window shattered and blood on the ground and in the vehicle, which was riddled with more than a dozen bullet holes.

The Fifth and Harrison streets offramp remains closed to traffic this afternoon.

Harrison Street is closed between Fourth and Sixth streets and Fifth Street is closed between Bryant and Folsom streets.

Police do not have an estimate on when the streets will reopen, Gittens said.

Investigators are urging anyone who witnessed the incident to call the San Francisco Police Department's general works detail at (415) 553-1141, or the 24-hour anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444.

Copyright © 2007 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.

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