Hunters Point Shooting Victim Dies; Two Others Shot Dead Over The Weekend

Three people, including young mother, slain in unrelated S.F. attacks

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, September 15, 2008

(09-15) 16:38 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco police are looking for suspects in unrelated attacks over the weekend that left three people dead, including a young mother shot and killed outside her housing project on Potrero Hill and a man slain as he left a medical-marijuana club.

The violence began Friday night when Jamal Beasley, a 24-year-old parolee who was released in February after serving time on a drug-related offense, was shot as he was walking on La Salle Avenue at Osceola Lane in Hunters Point at 10:30 p.m., authorities said. He was declared dead the next day.

On Saturday, police say, 19-year-old Caprisha Green, a mother of a 1-year-old daughter, was shot and killed in the 1000 block of Connecticut Street about 10:25 p.m. She was outside her unit at the Potrero Hill projects with several friends at the time.

"Everything we heard is that she was a good kid," said Inspector Mike Gaynor of the homicide detail.

"We have no reason to believe that she was targeted for any reason," he said. "We don't know why the shooting occurred, or whether it was a beef, or whether someone was shooting the gun off by accident."

The bloodshed continued Sunday evening, when Royshawn Holden, 23, who lived in the Western Addition, was shot and killed at 9:30 p.m. after what police said was a robbery outside Mr. Nice Guy, a medical marijuana dispensary at Duboce Avenue and Valencia Street.

The gunman approached Holden and another man after they came out of the club, robbed them and, after shooting Holden, sped off in a green minivan. The club had no comment.

Holden's mother, Tracie Holden, said her son had a job cleaning buildings and never had any run-ins with police. She said he hoped to be a firefighter.

"He was a good kid, quiet," she said. "I really don't know what to make of it."

Inspector Dennis Maffei said Holden and his friend were robbed after they left the medical marijuana club and got into a Lexus that belonged to Holden's girlfriend.

The gunman pulled the men out of the car. After being robbed, police say, Holden started to run.

"He was shooting at Royshawn as he was running," Maffei said of the killer.

He said investigators have only a vague description of the gunman.

Holden "was a young man who, for all intents and purposes, was everything the city wants young people to be," Maffei said. "He had no police contacts. Not a one. "

Holden's mother said that the car may have drawn the eye of the gunman but that her son had little cash.

"He only had $10 on him," Tracie Holden said. "He didn't have any money because the other day, he said, 'Mom, can I borrow a 10?'

"If they wanted money, they got the wrong person," she said.

No arrests have been made in any of the shootings. The killings brought to 77 the number of homicides in San Francisco, compared with 80 at the same time in 2007.

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