Residents along the quiet stretch of Commercial Street are still trying to piece together what led to a shooting incident between a San Francisco police officer and a man who barricaded himself inside an apartment and then brandished a pair of scissors at the officer.
At 7:41 p.m. on Nov. 18, police received a call about a missing person with a history of mental health problems, and were dispatched to a single-room occupancy (SRO) apartment at 756 Commercial St. and Kearny Street, according to SFPD Sgt. Neville Gittens. Soon, police reportedly received a second call and another unit was sent to the residence.
Neighbors said the parents of 32-year-old Xi Tao Wu lived in the SRO apartment, and had called the police after their son was missing. On both occasions, police were unable to locate Xi, but decided to stay nearby in case he might return.
A short time later, police received reports about a man who was “acting crazy,” and reportedly discovered that Xi had locked himself inside of his parents’ apartment. When officers knocked on the door, no one answered. After smelling gas and hearing the clicking sound of a stove lighter, they knocked down the door, according to Gittens.
The officers saw that Xi was carrying scissors and had climbed out of the window onto the fire escape and began shouting and threatened to jump from the fire escape, Gittens said. Officers on the scene spoke Cantonese and English to Xi, trying to get him to drop the scissors, Gittens added.
Two officers got onto the fire escape with Xi and one officer opened fire when Xi allegedly lunged at and tried to stab one of the officers, according to police reports. Xi sustained a single gunshot wound to the abdomen, and was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital at around 9 p.m. in serious but stable condition.
According to Sing Tao Daily, a Chinese-language newspaper, the next-door neighbor always heard people arguing inside of the third-floor apartment. The younger Xi and his parents had just moved from Toishan County in Guandong, China, a little over year ago.
Witnesses said Xi had just lost his job, and had accrued a sizable gambling debt. Xi had stayed with his parents off and on at their SRO apartment at 756 Commercial St.
Many Chinatown residents are still talking about the alley way incident and drawing comparisons to the controversial July 13 fatal police shooting in San Jose of 25-year-old Cau Bich Tran, a Vietnamese American woman.
“I don’t know why the police had to shoot at that man,” said a tenant who lives across the street and wished to remain anonymous. “This seems to happen to Asians and it’s a shame because the cops will probably get away with it. I don’t think this would even had happen if it were an Asian cop and a white person. I guess from now on, Asians can’t hold anything in their hands when there are police around.”