SF Fire Helps SFPD Arrest Knife-Wielding, Hot Prowling Parole in the Marina
Does SFPD Chief Scott even know the Marina is out-of-control?
For nine days, the mystery of who killed tech executive Bob Lee served as a barometer on whether San Francisco’s progressive policies were leading to an out-of-control crime wave. Or, as everyone in law enforcement already knew,[1] both the killer was no stranger to Lee, and the randomness of some of San Francisco’s recent violent crimes has reached dangerous new heights. The significance of the outcome raised Bob Lee, an unknown before the murder, to a posthumous celebrity. Prior to the murder, locals only knew “Bob Lee” as the Lowell grad who quarterbacked for the Minnesota Vikings.
But is it accurate to conclude that the complex relationship between Lee, the killer, and the killer’s sister is a referendum on whether our streets are safe, or whether we are secure in our own homes?
You are not safe inside your own home in the Marina
Easter weekend is quiet in the city as residents with children travel for the spring break. Imagine it’s a lazy Saturday morning, when two SFPD officers wake you up to advise you there is a stranger in your house. What? Let’s backup.
At 9:30am, on Greenwich Street in the heart of the Marina, Blake called 9-1-1 when he noticed the glass that framed his neighbor’s front door was shattered and he was concerned that his neighbors were away.
As the Northern Station five-car arrived, dispatchers notified Officers Chinawah and Monroe that the owner, Gabriel, had just called to claim he was inside his home and his Nest video showed a white male had broken into his house at 7:20 am. Do the math, that means the suspect had been in their house for two hours without the residents’ knowledge.
Officer Chinawah peered through the damaged window and heard, “fuck” and then the owner, Gabriel, yell, “He’s still in here!” When Gabriel emerged from the garage door, Chinawah described Gabriel’s “body shaking” and his voice was “quivering.” He told the officers that his wife was still upstairs.
SFPD called a “Code 33” to monopolize radio traffic as they cleared the four-story building looking for the hot prowler. That is when they awoke Gabriel’s wife, Goldie, and escorted her out of the building.
This is obviously a potentially volatile first-degree burglary. Yet, for statistical purposes, up to this point of the story, this crime is tabulated as a “nonviolent property crime” and essentially grouped in with a thief ripping off a couple pounds of coffee from Starbucks.[2]. This allows the progressives and the Chronicle to claim violent crime is decreasing despite the lasting traumatic effects both Gabriel and Gabby will endure.
SFPD ‘s search of the home was unsuccessful in finding the suspect, Noah Brannan Rodgers, who is on parole. Then, neighbor Blake alerted them Rodgers was on the exterior stairs clutching a kitchen knife and was trying to access the roof. (A kitchen knife slightly larger than the one that killed Lee.)
The Northern three and one-cars arrived at the scene, which included Officer Nazar a trained hostage negotiator. Many of the Northern Station officers also accessed the roof, but Rogers fled, hopping multiple roofs like Clint Eastwood in the Enforcer.[3]
The officers still positioned on rooftops broadcast Rodgers was using a rain gutter to slide down to the back stairway of 2052-2054 Greenwich Street. Rodgers came flying out of the tradesman’s entrance. Per Chinawah:
“Rodgers without provocation turned around and with an overhand motion, attempted to stab me in the head I took a step back and moved out of the path of the knife. If I had not moved out of the path of the five-inch blade, it would have made direct contact with my head.”
Rodgers took off running, with San Francisco Fire Captain Ryan Toby and Firefighter Christopher Moore joining in the foot pursuit.
Sergeant Kelly used his patrol car to cutoff Rodgers’ flight and ordered him to “stop” in front of 135 Pixley Street. There, Monroe tried to grab Rodgers’ arm when he tried to stab her, coming “within two inches of my face.” In the process, Rodgers stumbled back onto a planter box, when SFFD’s Moore and then Toby piled onto Rodgers to quell the threat.
Make no mistake, this is a shoutout to SFFD and Northern Station officers expressed their extreme appreciation for Toby’s and Moore’s valiant contribution.[4]
Where’s Chief Scott?
Without raising any questions, SFPD Chief William Scott has subscribed to implementing police reforms, which when applied, have created an inversely and predictably correlated perception of reduced public safety. Scott’s enactment of police reforms has overwhelmed officers with constantly changing rules and new recordkeeping requirements.
Northern Station had 10 patrol officers assigned to the morning shift on April 8, 2023. When this incident occurred, two officers were already busy arresting another hot prowler in the district. Seven of those ten officers responded to this hot prowl and immediately after, all of them were removed from the streets to each write a separate and redundant report on their perspectives. And those seven officers’ body camera videos had to be downloaded and each reviewed by a sergeant to ensure they didn’t employ excessive force before they were allowed to return to the streets. Thus, during this period, the rest of the Northern District was shortchanged with only three officers available to handle the work of ten.[5]
As detailed previously, Chief Scott has family circumstances that dictate him spending the majority of his weekends in the Los Angeles area—like presumably Saturday April 8th, when Rodgers tried to stab SFPD officers in separate instances. Presumably, Chief Scott was also not in SF the day before either. On that day, Fernando Aguilera[6], wearing blue, pointed a 357 Sig at Mission Station Officer Hurtado during a foot pursuit. When SFPD officers caught Aguilera and confiscated his firearm, they found a round was jammed in the chamber, a malfunction which might have saved Hurtado’s life.
But what is concerning to many in SFPD is that when Chief Scott spoke before the SF Police Commission on April 12th, he never mentioned the three attempts on his officers’ lives the previous week. This parallels my January 23, 2023 article where Chief Scott spoke to a community group about the epidemic of car break-ins, but failed to share that his officers were shot at the same morning trying to arrest suspects for stealing car parts.
Did Chief Scott even reach out and thank SFFD’s Toby and Moore?
It is one thing for a large city police chief to work remotely, it’s quite another to apparently be unaware or to not acknowledge the sacrifices his troops are making on behalf of the SF residents. There seems to be a complete disconnect here, and it’s easy to understand how this is demoralizing to Scott’s officers, accelerating their exodus, and making it more difficult to recruit new officers.[7
Or perhaps this is all just about the balance of window dressing that San Francisco is safe for tourists, while whispering there is a dire need for more officers because the dangers around us are increasing.
Is the Marina no longer safe?
Only three days before Rodgers broke into the Greenwich Street home, and less than half a mile away, former San Francisco fire commissioner and Marina resident Don Carmignani was severely injured when Garret Doty struck him over the head with a pipe. Both Rodgers and Doty have been in San Francisco for only a short time, both have acted violently in the Marina, and both list the same mailing address of 391 Ellis Street. Translation: they both moved here recently, and they are both transient (because of the high price of housing).
Northern Station officers tell me, “The Marina is currently out of control and Northern Station Captain Jackson desperately needs more officers to conduct proactive undercover operations.”
Is San Francisco safer now that we know that a complicated relationship was the trigger for the murder of Bob Lee? Consider, if Noah Rogers was willing to stab multiple uniformed police officers with guns on their belts, what chances do any of us unarmed civilians have if we are confronted with the same set of circumstances?
[1] Bob Lee was killed by a knife which means he probably knew the murderer and the murderer was able to get in close to him. It was after the bars closed, but there were no bars in the vicinity. Lee’s wallet and cellphone were not taken. Did you happen to notice that SFPD never asked for the public’s help on finding Bob Lee’s mystery killer?
[2] This is similar to the 20,000+ annual car break-ins where the 90% of the thieves are packing guns to thwart and good citizen involvement, but the break-ins are characterized as merely nonviolent property crimes.
[3] Wow, a foot chase from 850 Bryant to North Beach with no one breaking a sweat.
[4] And a reminder of the late former fireman, SFFD Bob Moser Sr. This was straight out of Bob’s playbook.
[5] The officers arresting the first hot prowler returned to the streets and postponed their paperwork until later.
[6] Incident # 230.240.345
[7] The two current SFPD Academy classes only have 9 recruits each, and 41 empty seats.
The SFPD and the SFFD need to be commended for their great work in the hot prowl mentioned above. The fact that so called Chief Scott didn't acknowledge any of the officers or firefighters great work shows that he's trying to minimize the crime in this once great city for political reasons. It's time for Chief Scott go back to Los Angeles where he belongs.
Just a few days after former fire commissioner Don Carmignani's attack, my cousin a Doctor in the Marina district ( Union/Fillmore) attempted to enter the dental officer where he works where he was met by a homeless man on the stairs of his office. My cousin asked the homeless man politely if he would please move off the stairs so that he could enter the dental office and go to work. The homeless man began to scream and yell and threatened my cousins life and wouldn't move away from the stairs. He had a knife in his hands as he threatened to kill my cousin. My cousin called the police and 4 officers responded, (2 officers and 2 Sergeants)
When the officers arrived at the scene the homeless man had walked away from the stairs and the officers made contact with him. Shortly after the officers made contact with the man my cousin noticed that the officers had left the scene and that the homeless was still roaming the streets. He then noticed that he was still screaming and yelling just up the street near a coffee shop and that there were now two other officers talking with him. Again no arrest and the officers left the scene while the homeless remained on the streets.
I took it upon myself to call Northern station and spoke with a supervisor there, I explained what had happened and told him that I believe the officers had plenty of information to arrest the homeless man, either for 422 PC terrorist threats or 5150 W&I mental health detention, danger to others. The supervisor agreed with me and supposedly sent two other officers to the scene in order to take the homeless man into custody.
I understand that the way of doing police work isn't the same anymore and that the climate has changed and our officers are looked at under a microscope. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't but this homeless issue in SF needs to change and change quickly. Homeless from all over the country come to SF because they are put up in Hotels and given cigarettes etc, why would you not come to SF if you were homeless. We need to stop making it a haven for homeless which in many cases are mentally unstable.
San Franciscans are fed up and it's time that this city gets tough on crime.
Get use to this anarchy in the blue sh..holes. No consequences for criminal behavior.
Never vote blue if you want to save the nation……or your city. Last chance 2024 before the end ..
No joke joe