Results tagged “richmond”

Well, this is getting downright creepy. Two "deliberately set" cars were set ablaze last night in the city of Richmond. BCN reports, that "[t]he first occurred at a home in the 600 block of 12th Street at around 11:45 p.m." where a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am was toasted. Then, around two hours later, a "second fire was reported in a driveway in the 4300 block of Center Avenue at around 1:40 a.m.," this time a 1990 Mitsubishi.

                 

In the Outer Richmond, just down from the Veterans Hospital on 44th Avenue and Clement, there's a makeshift veterans memorial the doubles as a cat sanctuary. A guy who lives either nearby or in the blue truck that is always parked near it crude memorial cares for the tiny plot of land and several stray cats who rely on the food, water, and shelter that sits next to the bevy of angel and lion statures, flags, potted flowers, and Iwo Jima painting.

Three more cars were torched Saturday, all of them being "less than a mile away from one another, and at about the same time." This comes on the heels of 12 vehicles getting charred crispy black in the East Bay last week.

     

Yesterday, somewhere around 500 students, faculty, and community members showed up at a vigil at Richmond High School, where a 15-year-old girl was beaten and gang raped over over a grueling two-and-a-half-hour ordeal on October 24 during a homecoming dance.

ABC7 is reporting on a string of 10 car fires that broke out early this morning, beginning with multiple locations along San Pablo Dam Road in Richmond (that's the City of Richmond, not *the* Richmond where the SF carsonist frequently struck). Police seem to already be honing in on a suspect, and unlike the SF carsonist, this one was a little more aggressive and a little less wily. Assuming this is a different carsonist, what is it about 2009 that makes this the era of car fires?

Three teenagers allegedly involved in the Richmond High School homecoming dance gang rape -- where a 15-year-old girl was beaten and raped on school grounds for at least two and a half hours, due in part to the school's lack of security -- could, hopefully, spend the rest of their lives in prison. According to KTVU, they will be "charged as adults with an enhanced rape count."

Three more men were arrested in connection with the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl outside a Richmond High School homecoming dance. The latest arrests, according to CBS 5, include a 21-year-old man and two teens, 16 and 17. Their names have yet to be released.

During Friday's Richmond High School gang rape that now, according to new reports, lasted somewhere around two hours, only two suspects have been arrested so far. Manuel Ortega, 19, was arrested at the scene. He is being held on $800,000 bail at a Contra Costa County jail.

After being beaten and allegedly raped by several men on the Richmond High School grounds after a homecoming dance, a 15-year-old girl remains hospitalized this morning. The incident happened on Saturday night. According to reports:

There was another car fire in the Richmond last night, the first since that string of them in July which, as you might recall, the SFPD was trying to pin on loony transient Fafa Chan. When another fire was set under a car in the Richmond a couple weeks after putting Chan in custody (we are not real journalists otherwise we might have looked into Ms. Chan's whereabouts), it appeared they maybe had the wrong gal/guy, or else Chan had spawned imitators. Anyhow, whoever it is, they're back. Watch your porta-potties, and don't park any cars in the Richmond that you hope to keep.

On Wednesday, SFist asked you to vote for your favorite foggy neighborhood, pitting the Sunset against the Richmond. Over 1,500 votes came in. The winner, creaming her competition my miles, was the Outer Sunset. The gorgeous and peaceful Outer Richmond, much to our surprise, came in dead last. But that's in due part to there being not nearly as much to do (e..g, bars, restaurants, stores, cafes) compared to the other fog-drenched hoods.

Speaking of the Inner Sunset...

Over at Pit Boss Barbeque, a restaurant located in Richmond at 12889 San Pablo Ave., two people were shot and killed around 7:30 p.m. on Sunday night. The victims have been identified as Alvaro Garcia Jr., 23, and Intaz Ahmed, 32. While no motives have officially been determined, the shootings might have been gang-related. Four men are being questioned about what went down.

Although a 62-year-old homeless woman named Fafa Chan is considered the prime suspect in last month's auto fires, and also in that string of porta-potty fire earlier this year, a car fire erupted early this morning. It seems, according to reports, someone "set a book on fire and placed it underneath a rear tire of a Honda Accord near the corner of 21st Avenue and Balboa Street"in the Richmond around 3:15 a.m. Which is interesting. Anyway, no injures were reported, no arrests were made.

The citizens of Richmond and its City Council are battling over the proposed development of a new casino at Point Molate, a former naval refueling station, by what one activist calls a "rent-a-tribe" who originally were settled over a hundred miles away.

What is this, Los Angeles in the 80s? A man driving in his Prius around 4:30 a.m. on I-80 near the 580 split at around Golden Gate Fields in Albany, was shot at a whole bunch of times by someone in an "older white vehicle." The man was too in shock to identify anything more about the shooter or his vehicle, and while he was only shot in the leg, his car has half a dozen bullet holes in it. He drove, still in shock, all the way home to Richmond, pulled into his driveway and called his brother, who then called Richmond police.

While looking for more lofty loft images just like this one over at Curbed -- seriously, we view this awesome SOMA pad at least twice a day; just look at that bathroom! -- we came across a plea by RichmondSFBlog, asking for a Street Plaza of their own, similar to the one at Castro and 17th Street. The Richmond, a San Francisco neighborhood that deserves the utmost respect and attention, would be perfect, RSFB claims, because they have "a host of areas where traffic and pedestrian safety is at odds (think Fulton Street corridor, Park Presidio Blvd)." Sarah B. goes on to say that "[p]azas like these, even ones that are just filled with landscaping, help signal to drivers that they’re in a pedestrian area." Sounds like a great idea. But where should said hypothetical plaza be, the Inner Richmond or Outer Richmond? Which is better, readers? Discuss. (via Curbed)

These smoking bans aren't anything new in California, but the City of Richmond -- which, arguably, has bigger law enforcement fish to fry -- has just joined the ranks of cities that ban smoking in multi-unit housing. The city received an "F" rating from the American Lung Association in January, and apparently at a loss for what to do about gang violence and the highest murder rate in the state, the city council has committed themselves to stopping the spread of second-hand smoke. Richmond previously instituted bans on smoking in public parks and farmers' markets.

A 21-year-old man, Marcus Russell, was shot and killed on I-580 yesterday afternoon. His female passenger was also hit, but managed to survive. According to Richmond police, the 19-year-old passenger claims "two men in a full-sized red van shot at least 12 rounds at them from a semi-automatic weapon while both vehicles were traveling eastbound on the highway prior to Bayview Avenue just after 4 p.m." She allegedly does not know the suspects or why they shot at them. CBS 5 (via BCN) reports that "they could find no witnesses to the attack, despite the fact that it took place on a busy highway." Also, "there was no apparent altercation before the shooting."

Richmond police admit ignoring the racially-motivated beating of Brandon Manning, whose crime report sat unnoticed on the desk of a sergeant who was "absent for several days." Fortunately, though, police finally looked at the report (after getting calls from Manning's family asking about the investigation) and arrested "seven white suspects" this past Saturday. Steven Kinney, Andrew Word, Victor Faria and Richard Lange, who range in age from 18 to 20, were charged with assault, battery and hate crimes.

A little over a week ago, Jan. 24, seven male suspects beat a UPS employee (who is black) in a park in the 3500 block of Morningside Drive in the city of Richmond. And it looks like the victim might have been baited. According to reports, the UPS driver walked to a nearby gas station after leaving work, wherein he met a group of men who offered him a ride home. After drinking a few round, they stopped at a park and the UPS worker used a restroom, "where he was struck in the back of the head by one of the suspects." The other men joined in the attack, yelling "racial epithets and fracturing the victim's face bones." Vile. All seven unidentified suspects are in custody. This comes on the heels of a Richmond lesbian who was brutally gang raped and beaten after a few Richmond pigs noticed the rainbow flag sticker on her car bumper.

Humberto Salvador, 31, Josue Gonzalez, 21 (at right), Darrell Hodges, 16, and an unidentified 15-year-old piece of prison meat all pleaded 'not guilty' in the vicious gang rape of a Richmond lesbian. The four are accused of kidnapping to commit a sex crime and a series of forcible rape, forcible sodomy and forcible oral copulation charges while acting in concert, according to reports. The 45-minute assault started when the victim got out of her car, which was adorned with a rainbow flag sticker. She was beaten, raped, taken to a second location, and left naked by the train tracks. Three of the suspects are scheduled to go back to court on March 5.

The alleged human beings who assaulted, kidnapped, and raped a random Richmond lesbian were arraigned in Contra Costa Superior Court this week. Josue Gonzalez, 21, and Humberto Hernandez Salvador, 31, appeared in court without entering pleas. A 16-year-old suspect from Hercules was arraigned on Monday and will rightfully be tried as an adult; however, the fourth assumed assailant, a 15-year-old boy from Richmond, will, sadly, be tried as a minor.

Four arrests were made this week after the brutal gang rape of a 28-year-old Richmond lesbian. Josue Gonzalez, 21, the pig at right, was arrested yesterday on a warrant for gang rape, kidnapping for a sex crime, and carjacking. Humberto Hernandez Salvador, 31, and two other teens (the 15- and 16-year-old creeps who went by "Paco" and "Blue) were arrested on Wednesday night for their involvement in last week's vicious hate crime.

Good grief, what is going on in the city of Richmond? First, some pigs gang rape a woman because she had a rainbow flag stick affixed to the back of her car. Then, on Saturday at around 6 p.m., a female cyclist was hit twice by two separate vehicles. Laura Casey, 49, was riding her bike when "a white, four-door sedan rear-ended her," knocking her to the ground. As Casey screamed for help, according to reports, she was fatally "struck by a second vehicle, which dragged her 25 feet, then drove away." If you have info on who might have killed Casey, please call the Richmond Police Department at 510-620-6655.

After being taunted for being a lesbian, a woman in the city of Richmond was "repeatedly raped and left naked outside an abandoned apartment building" by four strangers on December 13.

Attorney General Jerry Brown will announce a major crackdown on street gangs today. Early this morning, agents presented more than 40 search warrants and 43 arrest warrants at Richmond locations -- e.g., One raid in the area of Eighth Street and Barrett Avenue in Richmond -- part of a gang enforcement operation.

Jordan McCay, 23, has been identified as the victim of yesterday's shooting in the city's Richmond district. If you recall, he was shot and killed after an altercation with two men a little around 2 a.m. Wednesday morning while riding home from work. McCay, it seems, was two blocks away form his apartment before he was murdered. McCay's killers left behind his bike, backpack, everything. According to the Chronicle, McCay recently graduated from UC Santa Cruz and was working at "a film production outfit in Berkeley." No arrests have been made, no descriptions of the assailant are available.

According to the Gate, le Richmond Bart is closed and "trains are being turned around at El Cerrito Del Norte BART" after a man wearing "an Indiana Jones-style hat got on board an Amtrak train in Martinez and asked other passengers strange questions," leaving a "package that appeared to have wires sticking out of it," and then heading to a second car where he pried off two windows. (God, the Bay Area is just awesome sometimes.) He then jumped out the window. Yikes.

• In the city of Richmond this weekend, a woman was "brutally raped" on the Richmond High School campus while walking home from the grocery store at around 11 p.m. The suspect was identified (though his name is secret from the press as of now) and arrested immediately after the attack.
• Carlos Padilla-Ovedio, 25, stabs to death Jesus Hernandez, 33, of Daly City, inside Cafe Durango in Daly City. Hernandez, it seems, made a "rude remark" about the waitress, which then led Padilla-Ovedio to kill him. Jesus. SFPD somehow magically managed to capture and arrest the suspect.
• SFPD sucks, fails to investigate hundreds of murders.