Murder on McAllister Street

An unidentified man was murdered underneath my living room window on McAllister Street Monday night according to a couple of paragraphs by Demian Bulwa on SFGate (click here).

Update: The murdered man was 30-year-old Orlando Martin-Camas who was returning home to Hayes Valley from work at a pizza parlor (click here for the "Chronicle" update, though it's heartbreaking).



It happened around 10:15 PM although we saw and heard nothing. According to Bulwa, "The unidentified victim was approached by several suspects at 10:21 p.m. on the 600 block of McAllister Street, police said. One opened fire before they all fled on foot."



Our signal that something had happened was the arrival of police and emergency vehicles, who taped off the entrances to McAllister between Franklin and Gough.



The SFGate article is entitled, "Man shot dead near S.F. City Hall."



In truth, the man was shot dead at the corner building which houses the San Francisco Unified School District headquarters and School Board auditorium, which is covered in graffiti just like the abandoned John Swett school across the street.



The article also begins with the absurd phrase, "Police are investigating." The only time I've seen a policeman outside of their car in this neighborhood over the last 15 years was during the Iraq War demonstrations. In fact, the only public safety personnel I ever see out of their vehicles are the occasional Department of Parking and Traffic officers putting tickets on cars.



I went to the School District headquarters to see if anybody knew any details about the murder right in front of their building but the front desk was empty and there was nobody to answer any questions...



...which made me very glad I wasn't a parent trying to register their child in school.



Finally, the front desk guy (above) returned, didn't even give me or a few other parents a word, grabbed a cigarette and went to the parking lot in back to talk on his cell phone. Somehow, it felt like a perfect metaphor for what's wrong with a number of city institutions right now. The people involved really don't give a damn.