Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, April 13, 2008
(04-12) 12:34 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Police investigating two unrelated weekend incidents - a shooting death in San Francisco and a house fire in Oakland - believe that both may be blamed on separate impromptu street car rallies known as sideshows.
The first incident took place in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood just before midnight Friday, when Fred Bishop, 40, was shot and killed outside his car at Hudson Avenue and Cashmere Street.
Police are investigating whether the shooting may have been triggered after a crash involving a car that was doing spins or doughnuts in the street, typical of the sideshow exhibitions.
Bishop, who apparently lived in the nearby Northridge Cooperative Homes, was shot at 11:59 p.m. Friday and died at San Francisco General Hospital at 1:30 a.m. Saturday. Police said they recovered two cars near the shooting, one of which may have belonged to Bishop. He was not inside it at the time he was shot.
Police responded to reports of speeding cars and sideshow activity as part of a traffic operation in the city Friday night.
In the operation, five San Francisco police stations took part in a traffic enforcement crackdown across the city in which officers issued 209 tickets, made 32 misdemeanor and five felony arrests, towed 34 cars, seized one weapon and found the car apparently linked to Bishop's slaying.
"It was a very successful operation. That goes without saying with those sorts of numbers. It was an effort to improve traffic safety in San Francisco," said Sgt. Steve Mannina, department spokesman.
Across the bay, two cars apparently involved in a sideshow plowed through the front yard of an Oakland home early Saturday, breaking a gas line and touching off a blaze that destroyed most of the three-bedroom residence, authorities said.
The 4:23 a.m. fire started after the two cars headed south on 90th and Bancroft avenues and the drivers apparently lost control of the vehicles, crashing into the bungalow-style home at 2040 90th Ave., police said.
The drivers and their passengers fled the scene, said Oakland police Officer Vince Fratangelo.
"It was all sideshow-related," Fratangelo said. "There's a lot of sideshow activity around there."
Oakland fire Lt. David Brue said both cars hit each other and then the home, one of them breaking a natural gas pipe feeding the house.
"That was the ignition point and the fuel source," he said. The fire burned 45 minutes, until the gas line was shut off.
The home's roof collapsed in the fire, but the residents were able to escape injury.
Steven Tupa, whose parents own the home, said seven adults and a 4-year-old were inside at the time of the crash. As he spoke from a rear garage that survived the fire, family members were hauling out what could be salvaged from the clapboard home, now surrounded by yellow caution tape. The tape spanned the corner home once protected by a chain-link fence.
"I heard a sound, like a big bang, and I got up," Tupa said. "I was on my way to the living room ... but as soon as I got close to the door, I heard yelling. I looked out the door, and there was another bang, it shook the whole house."
"We just stood out here, watching" after everyone made it out of the house safely, he said.
Joe Tupa, a cousin, said he was angry at the sideshows, where motorists race around the neighborhoods, doing doughnuts and other antics.
"They should stop that," he said, "and go get a job and do something."
Sunday, April 13, 2008
(04-12) 12:34 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Police investigating two unrelated weekend incidents - a shooting death in San Francisco and a house fire in Oakland - believe that both may be blamed on separate impromptu street car rallies known as sideshows.
The first incident took place in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood just before midnight Friday, when Fred Bishop, 40, was shot and killed outside his car at Hudson Avenue and Cashmere Street.
Police are investigating whether the shooting may have been triggered after a crash involving a car that was doing spins or doughnuts in the street, typical of the sideshow exhibitions.
Bishop, who apparently lived in the nearby Northridge Cooperative Homes, was shot at 11:59 p.m. Friday and died at San Francisco General Hospital at 1:30 a.m. Saturday. Police said they recovered two cars near the shooting, one of which may have belonged to Bishop. He was not inside it at the time he was shot.
Police responded to reports of speeding cars and sideshow activity as part of a traffic operation in the city Friday night.
In the operation, five San Francisco police stations took part in a traffic enforcement crackdown across the city in which officers issued 209 tickets, made 32 misdemeanor and five felony arrests, towed 34 cars, seized one weapon and found the car apparently linked to Bishop's slaying.
"It was a very successful operation. That goes without saying with those sorts of numbers. It was an effort to improve traffic safety in San Francisco," said Sgt. Steve Mannina, department spokesman.
Across the bay, two cars apparently involved in a sideshow plowed through the front yard of an Oakland home early Saturday, breaking a gas line and touching off a blaze that destroyed most of the three-bedroom residence, authorities said.
The 4:23 a.m. fire started after the two cars headed south on 90th and Bancroft avenues and the drivers apparently lost control of the vehicles, crashing into the bungalow-style home at 2040 90th Ave., police said.
The drivers and their passengers fled the scene, said Oakland police Officer Vince Fratangelo.
"It was all sideshow-related," Fratangelo said. "There's a lot of sideshow activity around there."
Oakland fire Lt. David Brue said both cars hit each other and then the home, one of them breaking a natural gas pipe feeding the house.
"That was the ignition point and the fuel source," he said. The fire burned 45 minutes, until the gas line was shut off.
The home's roof collapsed in the fire, but the residents were able to escape injury.
Steven Tupa, whose parents own the home, said seven adults and a 4-year-old were inside at the time of the crash. As he spoke from a rear garage that survived the fire, family members were hauling out what could be salvaged from the clapboard home, now surrounded by yellow caution tape. The tape spanned the corner home once protected by a chain-link fence.
"I heard a sound, like a big bang, and I got up," Tupa said. "I was on my way to the living room ... but as soon as I got close to the door, I heard yelling. I looked out the door, and there was another bang, it shook the whole house."
"We just stood out here, watching" after everyone made it out of the house safely, he said.
Joe Tupa, a cousin, said he was angry at the sideshows, where motorists race around the neighborhoods, doing doughnuts and other antics.
"They should stop that," he said, "and go get a job and do something."