Hillsborough Shooting: Still at large

I knew something was up yesterday just after 4pm as a helicopter made its fourth circular pass over my house.  There had been some sirens as well and there were many more to follow as police cruisers raced up ECR for the next hour or more.  Around 7:30 I spotted a Mountain View cruiser parked in from of St. Catherine's lying in wait.  The SF Chronicle is reporting

Hillsborough police continued to search Sunday for an assailant they say ambushed and shot an officer in the police department’s rear parking lot Saturday afternoon before fleeing on foot.  The violent incident occurred at 3:49 p.m. Saturday, when an “unknown individual” began firing and struck the officer in the lot at 1600 Floribunda Ave., near Hillsborough Town Hall. The officer returned fire as the assailant took off. Police did not know whether the assailant had been hit.

Paramedics transported the wounded officer — who has not been identified — to San Francisco General Hospital as law enforcement began searching the area and “pursuing active leads'” to make an arrest, according to statements from the police department Saturday night.

That sounds far from random to me and is probably the basis for the "active leads" bit.  I was also reminded of the snafus around the tsunami warnings last December noted here.  Why?  Because the SMC Alert to shelter in place didn't arrive until 9:54pm!  What's up with that?  I checked X, but BPD hasn't posted anything to its account there since August of 2023.

Not wanting to drop into the rabbit holes that are Facebook and Nextdoor, I just kept listening to the chopper, and later a fixed wing plane, circle until well after dark.  I doubt you can see much looking for someone on foot in a neighborhood at 8pm from an airplane.  This makes two shooting in three months (see here), so we really have to get the public alert systems synchronized and operating in a timely fashion.  More to follow.

Update:  An eagle-eyed reader provided this flight view of the Cessna 206 that circled endlessly.  The helicopter is not shown.

Comments

[Fugit All]

@hillsboroughpd is the Twitter account that is posting on this incident including that a person in SSF has been interviewed.

I don't know why the two departments aren't sharing information to the public about it.

I was out for a walk just after 5pm and got to Willow where cops (with their weapons out) told me to go back home and shelter in place. If the alerts were working correctly, I would have never gone in that direction. I've been signed up for SMC alerts for years! I'll get notices about random traffic route changes throughout SM but didn't receive a text about this event, blocks from where I live, until 7am this morning. I hope they fix whatever was broken about those alerts before the next critical incident.

[Timothy Hooker]

Maybe I am missing something:

Law enforcement is withholding key details—the race and sex of the person involved. They have this information but are choosing not to share it with the community. Without it, how can anyone assist in locating this individual?

This isn't a minor issue. Keeping this information from the public creates a roadblock that slows down efforts to spread awareness and find the person. Transparency is essential for public safety, and without it, the search becomes much more difficult.

Why won’t they release this information? The community has a right to know and be part of the effort. The faster this information is shared, the faster action can be taken.

[Joe]

I've had an email exchange with the interim Chief and the City Manager about the communications issues around this event. Here are a few takeaways:

--With Hillsborough leading the response on this event, B'game was a bit hamstrung on making a wider announcement, but will work on making them sooner and wider. The alert this morning about a "canvas search" on Oak Grove appears to be wider and more timely.

--Using multiple platforms to make the announcements (i.e. more than SMC Alert and Facebook) can be challenging to manage, monitor and update. "In the future, and dependent upon the type of incident, perhaps we should direct people to one platform in order to receive any relevant updates." That's a "yes" from me.

--The premature cancellation of the alert at 12:26 AM is because we "believe the system was taking longer than expected to respond to the “transmit” request and may have been clicked on multiple times by our dispatcher, leading to a technical problem or accidental cancellation. This is being addressed with staff, and additional training is being provided."

[Joe]

The SF Chron is reporting this--9 days after the shooting:

Hillsborough police have released a sketch of a person of interest in the shooting of a police officer last Saturday.

The assailant had gained access to a restricted area of the police parking lot at 3:49 p.m., fired at the officer when approached, then fled on foot, according to the Hillsborough Police Department.

The officer was taken to a local hospital and is expected to make a full recovery, police said.

After the shooting, witnesses reported that the person of interest was running southbound on El Camino Real near Carol, Cypress and Barroilhet avenues in Burlingame around 5:30 p.m. that day. The man appeared anxious and was looking back frequently, suggesting an attempt to avoid detection, police said.

Police described the person of interest as Latino, around 25 to 27 years old, standing 5 feet, 5 inches to 5-7, with a pale complexion and short black hair. He was wearing a black trucker hat, black windbreaker-type jacket, dark sagging jeans with rhinestones on the back pockets, and flat-soled Nike shoes.
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There is "close to home" and really Close to Home--like less than 100 yards.......

[Joe]

The Town of H'borough is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the shooter.