My condolences to the family and to all who knew him......
(01-14) 04:00 PST San Francisco - -- Police are searching for two gunmen who shot and killed an anti-violence activist Saturday night outside the packed San Francisco gymnasium where he had been watching and rooting for his daughter, a star player on the nation's top-ranked high school basketball team.
Terrell "Terray" Rogers, whose daughter is a top-rated junior guard for Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, had walked across the street from the school during halftime when he was attacked in a parking lot in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood, police said.
Investigators have made no arrests in the slaying of the 39-year-old father of two from Pacifica, while those who knew Rogers are struggling to understand why he was apparently targeted. Rogers, they said, grew up in a tough part of San Francisco and got into some trouble, but later dedicated himself to helping young people.
Rogers had been watching his daughter, Tierra, a highly recruited guard for a two-time defending state champion team. The gymnasium on Ellis Street was packed for a game against Archbishop Mitty High School of San Jose. As usual, the gregarious Rogers had been cheering loudly.
"You can't fathom the viciousness and senselessness of this entire situation," said Sue Phillips, Mitty's head coach, who also coached Tierra Rogers on a San Jose club basketball team. "Terray was a good soul, and this planet was much better with him on it. It's just sickening."
At 8:20 p.m., during halftime of the game, Terrell Rogers and another man left the gymnasium and walked across Ellis Street, between Gough and Franklin streets, police said. Two men approached Rogers near a small church parking lot. Both opened fire, striking him multiple times before they fled on foot, said Sgt. Steve Mannina, a department spokesman.
Rogers was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. The unidentified man with Rogers was not hurt, and no arrests have been made, Mannina said.
At least five gunshots were heard on the street, but the sound didn't penetrate the gymnasium, according to witnesses. The contest resumed, but Rogers' daughter was quietly pulled out of the game during the third quarter. Phillips said the teenager was taken to an office near the gymnasium and told that her father had been shot.
The game was finally called with 17 seconds left, when Sacred Heart Cathedral President John Scudder announced to the crowd that an incident had occurred on Ellis Street and asked fans to exit through a rear door. Sacred Heart Cathedral, the No. 1 girls basketball team in the country according to USA Today and MaxPreps, was leading and credited with the victory.
Tierra Rogers is considered to be one of the top 11th-grade basketball players in the country and is being recruited by Pac-10 conference schools, among others. Her father was a constant and visible presence at her games.
Police declined Sunday to discuss any possible motives for the slaying.
"We think he was the intended target, considering that (Rogers) was the only one shot, and the other person was not injured," Mannina said.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was saddened to hear of the killing, said his spokesman Nathan Ballard.
Rogers "was a devoted father, he was giving back to the community, and he was working to get his life back on track," Ballard said. "This is a heartbreaking loss."
Sacred Heart Cathedral officials declined to say much about the shooting and released a statement saying their "prayers are with the family."
Principal Ken Hogarty said the school's focus at the end of the game was to "make sure there was calm" after the announcement.
Rogers, a union painter, was the co-founder and director of Peacekeepers, a nonprofit crisis intervention group looking to curb violence in San Francisco, particularly in the Alice Griffith public housing development in Bayview-Hunters Point, where Rogers grew up. Though no longer a resident, Rogers kept a small office in an apartment unit marked only by the word "Peace" on a front window.
Rogers was a large, outgoing man dedicated to keeping young people from repeating some of the mistakes he had made as a young man, said Takai Tyler, co-executive director of Hunters Point Family, a larger nonprofit group that oversees Peacekeepers.
"He was the person we would go to to help us mediate if there were disputes in the community," Tyler said. "Everyone is devastated. He touched the lives of hundreds and hundreds of kids, and adults as well.
"Terray always felt a sense of responsibility around things he had done in his youth, not just him but his generation," Tyler said, "and he wanted to make a difference because of that responsibility."
Tyler said she did not know many details about Rogers' past. But she said his father, a community leader, was killed when he was much younger. The Adam Rogers Community Garden was established in his father's honor, and still sits off Oakdale Avenue in the Bayview.
On Sunday morning, the parking lot where Terrell Rogers was killed still bore signs of the shooting. Shards of broken glass, apparently from a window struck by a bullet, had been swept into a pile near a yellow tarp of the kind police use to cover a body. There were six yellow chalk circles, probably indicating where bullet casings were found.
The parking lot is owned by nearby St. Mark's Lutheran Church and is typically used by worshipers and residents of the church's Martin Luther Tower, a senior housing complex.
Lead Pastor Elizabeth Ekdale said the church had installed a surveillance camera in the parking lot because of a rash of car break-ins, though she said the cameras may not have captured the shooting. She said that the church office has been burglarized twice and that drug dealing was a problem in and near the lot.
In the isolated and run-down Alice Griffith complex, friends of Rogers were mourning his death Sunday. Sammy Vaughn, a 33-year-old car salesman, said Rogers helped him start his own activist group that helps people fight against police brutality.
"He paved the way for us, showed us how to get jobs instead of being in the streets," Vaughn said. "We're hurting. He did all this stuff to end violence, and then he goes out in a violent manner."
Phillips, the Mitty coach, said she met Rogers two years ago when his daughter joined her Amateur Athletic Union club team, the San Jose Cagers.
Phillips said she saw Rogers before Saturday night's game, when he said his daughter's shins were bothering her.
"He was telling me she needed some time off," said Phillips. "I jokingly said, 'Let's have her take some time off tonight.' "
When Tierra Rogers vanished in the third quarter, Phillips assumed she was getting treatment for her shins. But after the game was stopped, an assistant whispered the news - causing Phillips to collapse into tears on the bench. Soon she was escorted to a private room to see Rogers' daughter, his wife, Dalonna, and his son, a middle-schooler named Terrell Jr.
"We embraced, and we prayed," Phillips said. "You can't make sense of anything like that."
(01-14) 04:00 PST San Francisco - -- Police are searching for two gunmen who shot and killed an anti-violence activist Saturday night outside the packed San Francisco gymnasium where he had been watching and rooting for his daughter, a star player on the nation's top-ranked high school basketball team.
Terrell "Terray" Rogers, whose daughter is a top-rated junior guard for Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, had walked across the street from the school during halftime when he was attacked in a parking lot in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood, police said.
Investigators have made no arrests in the slaying of the 39-year-old father of two from Pacifica, while those who knew Rogers are struggling to understand why he was apparently targeted. Rogers, they said, grew up in a tough part of San Francisco and got into some trouble, but later dedicated himself to helping young people.
Rogers had been watching his daughter, Tierra, a highly recruited guard for a two-time defending state champion team. The gymnasium on Ellis Street was packed for a game against Archbishop Mitty High School of San Jose. As usual, the gregarious Rogers had been cheering loudly.
"You can't fathom the viciousness and senselessness of this entire situation," said Sue Phillips, Mitty's head coach, who also coached Tierra Rogers on a San Jose club basketball team. "Terray was a good soul, and this planet was much better with him on it. It's just sickening."
At 8:20 p.m., during halftime of the game, Terrell Rogers and another man left the gymnasium and walked across Ellis Street, between Gough and Franklin streets, police said. Two men approached Rogers near a small church parking lot. Both opened fire, striking him multiple times before they fled on foot, said Sgt. Steve Mannina, a department spokesman.
Rogers was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. The unidentified man with Rogers was not hurt, and no arrests have been made, Mannina said.
At least five gunshots were heard on the street, but the sound didn't penetrate the gymnasium, according to witnesses. The contest resumed, but Rogers' daughter was quietly pulled out of the game during the third quarter. Phillips said the teenager was taken to an office near the gymnasium and told that her father had been shot.
The game was finally called with 17 seconds left, when Sacred Heart Cathedral President John Scudder announced to the crowd that an incident had occurred on Ellis Street and asked fans to exit through a rear door. Sacred Heart Cathedral, the No. 1 girls basketball team in the country according to USA Today and MaxPreps, was leading and credited with the victory.
Tierra Rogers is considered to be one of the top 11th-grade basketball players in the country and is being recruited by Pac-10 conference schools, among others. Her father was a constant and visible presence at her games.
Police declined Sunday to discuss any possible motives for the slaying.
"We think he was the intended target, considering that (Rogers) was the only one shot, and the other person was not injured," Mannina said.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was saddened to hear of the killing, said his spokesman Nathan Ballard.
Rogers "was a devoted father, he was giving back to the community, and he was working to get his life back on track," Ballard said. "This is a heartbreaking loss."
Sacred Heart Cathedral officials declined to say much about the shooting and released a statement saying their "prayers are with the family."
Principal Ken Hogarty said the school's focus at the end of the game was to "make sure there was calm" after the announcement.
Rogers, a union painter, was the co-founder and director of Peacekeepers, a nonprofit crisis intervention group looking to curb violence in San Francisco, particularly in the Alice Griffith public housing development in Bayview-Hunters Point, where Rogers grew up. Though no longer a resident, Rogers kept a small office in an apartment unit marked only by the word "Peace" on a front window.
Rogers was a large, outgoing man dedicated to keeping young people from repeating some of the mistakes he had made as a young man, said Takai Tyler, co-executive director of Hunters Point Family, a larger nonprofit group that oversees Peacekeepers.
"He was the person we would go to to help us mediate if there were disputes in the community," Tyler said. "Everyone is devastated. He touched the lives of hundreds and hundreds of kids, and adults as well.
"Terray always felt a sense of responsibility around things he had done in his youth, not just him but his generation," Tyler said, "and he wanted to make a difference because of that responsibility."
Tyler said she did not know many details about Rogers' past. But she said his father, a community leader, was killed when he was much younger. The Adam Rogers Community Garden was established in his father's honor, and still sits off Oakdale Avenue in the Bayview.
On Sunday morning, the parking lot where Terrell Rogers was killed still bore signs of the shooting. Shards of broken glass, apparently from a window struck by a bullet, had been swept into a pile near a yellow tarp of the kind police use to cover a body. There were six yellow chalk circles, probably indicating where bullet casings were found.
The parking lot is owned by nearby St. Mark's Lutheran Church and is typically used by worshipers and residents of the church's Martin Luther Tower, a senior housing complex.
Lead Pastor Elizabeth Ekdale said the church had installed a surveillance camera in the parking lot because of a rash of car break-ins, though she said the cameras may not have captured the shooting. She said that the church office has been burglarized twice and that drug dealing was a problem in and near the lot.
In the isolated and run-down Alice Griffith complex, friends of Rogers were mourning his death Sunday. Sammy Vaughn, a 33-year-old car salesman, said Rogers helped him start his own activist group that helps people fight against police brutality.
"He paved the way for us, showed us how to get jobs instead of being in the streets," Vaughn said. "We're hurting. He did all this stuff to end violence, and then he goes out in a violent manner."
Phillips, the Mitty coach, said she met Rogers two years ago when his daughter joined her Amateur Athletic Union club team, the San Jose Cagers.
Phillips said she saw Rogers before Saturday night's game, when he said his daughter's shins were bothering her.
"He was telling me she needed some time off," said Phillips. "I jokingly said, 'Let's have her take some time off tonight.' "
When Tierra Rogers vanished in the third quarter, Phillips assumed she was getting treatment for her shins. But after the game was stopped, an assistant whispered the news - causing Phillips to collapse into tears on the bench. Soon she was escorted to a private room to see Rogers' daughter, his wife, Dalonna, and his son, a middle-schooler named Terrell Jr.
"We embraced, and we prayed," Phillips said. "You can't make sense of anything like that."
