Two women are dead, a man is in critical condition and a suspect is in police custody following a Friday afternoon jewelry store shooting in downtown San Francisco.
Late Friday, none of the victims nor the suspect had been identified.
San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said his officers encountered the suspect, covered in blood, as they responded to a report of shots fired just after 2 p.m. at Victoga, a store in the Jewelry Mart at 888 Brannan near 7th Street in the South of Market area.
Suhr said as the officers approached the man he fired multiple shots at them. The suspect then ran into a restaurant. More officers arrived and entered the restaurant where the man fire more shots, according to police.
Suhr said the suspect ran out of bullets and then laid on the ground to surrender. The firearm, a revolver, and the edged weapon, a knife, were both recovered.
Surh said officers never returned fire.
The suspect was taken into police custody and is being treated for superficial wounds to his hands.
Suhr did not talk about a motive but said it was not the first time the suspect was in the Jewelry Mart building.
Suhr said officers evacuated the Jewelry Mart and put nearby buildings under lock down out of an abundance of caution as they conducted a search with SWAT and K-9 teams.
Some well-known tech companies are located in the area and were under the lock down. Pinterest and Zynga were among the companies that were shut down during the investigation.
Suhr said police do not believe there is an additional suspect at large, despite their continued search of the building. By 6:30 police declared the area clear and said the gunman had acted alone.
Suhr said his officers did not return fire because their guns were in their holsters. He said protocol is to take cover first in that situation, adding that his officers did not have a clean line of fire to hit the suspect.
Police said two female victims were pronounced deceased at the jewelry store. A third male victim was located with multiple injuries and transported to San Francisco General Hospital with life threatening injuries.
Police said one of the female victim suffered gun shot wounds. The second female victim suffered wounds from some type of edged weapon. The male victim suffered both gun shot wounds and wounds from an edged weapon, police said.
The Jewelry Mart is a multi-story wholesale retail complex in the South of Market District. It is not open to the public. Customers need to be on a list in order to get into the store area and are checked through by a security guard.
Once you have access through the guard you have access to all of the stores through a hallway that loops around in a circular pattern.Most of the stores sell jewelry.
According to its website, Victoga has been in the jewelry business over 26 years and specializes in gold chains, gold earrings, gold pendants, and gold bracelets. It said it also offers gold buying for customers who want to sell their unwanted, old, or broken gold jewelry.
Photo Credit: NBC Bay Area