Victim In Mission District Shooting Identified

POSTED: 2:14 pm PDT July 11, 2008
UPDATED: 12:16 pm PDT July 12, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO -- A man who was fatally shot in San Francisco's Mission 
District in broad daylight Friday has been identified today as a 30-year-old 
Rodeo resident, according to a medical examiner's office investigator.

Armando Estrada was shot at around 12:10 p.m. Friday at the intersection of 
Mission and 20th streets, a busy commercial area notorious for gang 
activity, according to police. Estrada was taken to San Francisco General 
Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to police.

Police spokesman Sgt. Neville Gittens said that investigators are 
considering the possibility the crime was gang-related, as the area is known 
as gang territory.

On Thursday evening at the same intersection, two people were stabbed and 
another shot with a BB gun. All three injuries were non-life threatening, 
and police have not positively linked that incident with today's shooting.

Friday afternoon, investigators were still at the scene, examining evidence 
on a bloodstained sidewalk surrounded by police tape, outside a Latino 
record shop.

An employee at the shop did not want to discuss the shooting, other than to 
say he suspected it was gang-related because there have been several other 
gang-related incidents in the area, he said.

Down the street, another shop worker said he heard one very loud gunshot and 
then ran to call police.

The man, who also declined to give his name out of concern for his safety --  
"I have to work here," he murmured -- said there were crowds of people 
milling around the area when the shooting occurred.

"And amazingly, instead of running away from there, people were running into 
there," toward the man who was shot to look at what happened, he said, 
pointing at the crime scene, where crowds of onlookers still stood.

Before the shooting, a long line of people had gathered outside a nearby 
AT&T store to wait for the new iPhone, the man said.

"And in 10 seconds...they were all gone," and the store closed its doors, he 
said.

Anyone who may have witnessed the shooting, or with information about the 
case, is asked to call the Police Department's anonymous tip line at (415) 
575-4444.