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San Francisco police are stepping up patrols in the city’s Mission District and surrounding neighborhoods in response to two fatal gang-related shootings earlier this week, police Chief Greg Suhr said today.
On Tuesday night, 29-year-old Edson Lacayo was found fatally shot in the 800 block of Hampshire Street, less than 24 hours after Gaspar Puch-Tzek, 22, was shot near the intersection of 19th and San Carlos streets.
Puch-Tzek, who had just left the nearby Hog and Rocks restaurant where he worked as a cook, died later Tuesday at San Francisco General Hospital.
Both shootings are being investigated as gang-related, police said. Investigators believe Puch-Tzek may have been mistaken for a gang member, which he was not.
Speaking at an unrelated event today, Suhr said the department is stepping up enforcement and patrols in the Mission and Ingleside neighborhoods to try to quell potential violence between the Norteno and Sureno gangs.
“It’s an effort to get out in front of it before a warm three-day weekend,” he said. “We’re hitting up all the local haunts.”
Two suspects are being sought in connection with the shooting of Puch-Tzek. They are described as Hispanic men between 25 and 30 years old wearing dark clothing and hoodies. They were last seen running west on 19th Street away from San Carlos Street, police said.
No detailed suspect description was immediately available in connection with Lacayo’s death.
Anyone with information about either case is encouraged to call the Police Department’s anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or send a tip by text message to TIP411.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
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