SFPD officers returned to a building in San Francisco early Wednesday morning, in a raid that resulted in 26 arrests.
At a press conference led by SFPD spokesperson Sgt. Daryl Fong, Fong said that the 26 occupants of 888 Turk were taken “without any incident.”
Fong said that in total, three properties were “secured” in the 800 block of Turk Street and the 900 block of Gough Street.
Twenty-three males and three females were arrested for trespassing, and two dogs were picked up by San Francisco Animal Care and Control, he said.
Two of those arrested were later released, a member of the media and a man in a wheelchair. The man, reports KCBS, “said he was prepared to be arrested and wasn’t sure why he was randomly let go.”
The detained reporter was, according to independent journalist Steve Rhodes, Jenna Lane of KGO Radio.
“There was no resistance” from any of the Occupiers, Fong said.
According to KRON4, police entered the building around 5 AM. “Protestors, led by officers, began coming out of the building one by one just before 6 AM.”
The operation was conducted in the early morning hours to, said Fong, “minimize the impact to public safety,” referring to an arrest made yesterday after one protester allegedly threw bricks and other projectiles from the roof of the building, striking at least one.
Jesse Nesbitt, 34, of San Francisco was arrested at around 5:45 p.m., police Sgt. Michael Andraychak said.
One of the bricks he allegedly threw missed a police officer and struck a protester, who refused medical attention. Fong said Wednesday morning that the injured man was “bleeding quite a bit” from his nose area.
Another projectile damaged a police vehicle, Andraychak said.
Nesbitt is facing charges of aggravated assault, aggravated assault of a police officer and felony vandalism, police said.
Another protester, Adam Delia, 24, was cited and released on suspicion of being a pedestrian in the roadway and disobeying a traffic officer, Andraychak said.
Police said Delia went into the street and tried to pick up a piece of brick that had been thrown from the roof.
“We thought that it was imperative that we remove the group to prevent any further acts of violence,” Fong said Wednesday morning.
Occupier Matt Crain, speaking to the Chron, said “people expected (the raid) could go down but we expected it might be between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. so this was a little earlier than we expected.”
Tuesday evening a handful of protestors sat cross-legged between police lines and the front of the building, while other protestors remained inside the building and in Jefferson Square Park, across the street.
By around 7 p.m. protesters remained inside the building and three males and one female were on the roofs of 888 Turk St. and a nearby building on Gough Street, the St. Paul’s Lutheran Evangelical Day School, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes and singing into a bullhorn.
At around 7:30 p.m. police withdrew from the front of the building and continued to monitor the situation.
The occupation began when protesters who had gathered for a noon rally at Market and Montgomery streets downtown marched to 888 Turk St. afterward and began entering the building shortly before 3 p.m.
The building is the same site, owned by the Archdiocese of San Francisco, that was taken over by protesters on April 1.
Andraychak said earlier Tuesday that the protesters were trespassing on private property.
“We’ve been in touch with the folks at the archdiocese,” he said.
Archdiocese spokesman George Wesolek told the Ex Tuesday that church officials had signed a citizen’s arrest for trespassing.
Protesters removed a large wire fence in front of the building and activists streamed into the building Tuesday afternoon, holding banners and signs reading “May Day, Never Surrender” and “SF Commune.”
Elsewhere: Police Raid Occupied Archdiocese Building, Remove Protestors [KRON]
SF police raid building occupied by protesters [ABC7]
S.F. police clear occupied church building [Chron]
Police Remove Protesters From Occupied San Francisco Building [KCBS]
888 Turk Raided In Early Morning Raid [IndyBay]
Occupied Church Building Cleared, Police Arrest 24 [Weekly]
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