RevealA UPS employee shot and killed three coworkers at the company’s main shipping facility in San Francisco Wednesday morning before turning his gun on himself and taking his own life. Two others, also UPS workers, were wounded.
In a late morning media briefing, San Francisco Police Department Assistant Chief Toney Chaplin said officers sped to the scene after receiving reports of gunfire at the UPS building — which covers a block near 16th Street and Potrero Avenue — at 8:55 a.m.
Chaplin said one police response team encountered the gunman, whom he said was armed with an assault pistol. When officers confronted the attacker, Chaplin said, he shot himself in the head. The man died after being taken to San Francisco General Hospital.
UPS spokesman Steve Gaut told The Associated Press the gunman was an employee before drivers were sent out to do their normal daily deliveries.
Police said they had not determined a motive for the attack, but that it was not considered a terrorist incident.
The conditions of the two surviving victims, who were also UPS employees, was not immediately known.
UPS workers cross 16th Street shortly after a shooting at the companies’ facility at 17th and Utah Street. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)
Officer Tracy Green of the SFPD’s Bayview Station told KQED just after the incident unfolded that an active shooter was “down” at the scene and that officers were sweeping the UPS shipping facility that covers the block between 16th and 17th streets and Utah Street and San Bruno Avenue.
Green said the shooter was found with a self-inflicted wound.
Dozens of police officers, including members of the SFPD’s SWAT team armed with semi-automatic rifles, swarmed the area just before 9 a.m.
A UPS employee who asked that her name be withheld told KQED’s John Sepulvado that she was in a break room when the shooting started.
“I heard ‘boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,’ and I’m thinking, ‘OK, it’s either boxes falling or gunshots,” she said. “And then I heard another boom, and then I hear someone screaming, ‘Everybody run, everybody run.’”
UPS driver Marvin Calderon said he was at his truck when he heard a series of shots. He told reporters he didn’t see the shooting because his vehicle was between the shooter and him.
“I just started screaming, ‘Get out! Get out! There’s gunfire, gunshots. Go! Go!'” Calderon said. “And then everyone Everybody started running. It was too quick. Less than 30 seconds.”
Calderon estimated he heard seven shots in an initial round of firing and that the gunman fired another five or six shots near the corner of 17th Street and San Bruno Avenue. In the hours immediately after the shooting, two bodies lay under yellow tarps at that corner.
Robert Kim, who runs an auto repair shop in the neighborhood, told the AP he heard at least five gunshots and saw UPS drivers running down the street screaming “shooter, shooter.”
Hayward Cook, who described himself as a UPS human resources manager, told KQED he was interviewing people in a conference room when he heard five gunshots.
He said that as the shots came closer, he moved people into nearby offices to “hunker down.”
Cook said he heard another series of five shots before the area fell silent and he escaped from the building with others.
In a statement, UPS said: “The company is saddened and deeply concerned about affected employees, family members and the community we share. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those touched by this incident. To assist our employees during this time, UPS has made professional counseling available.”
UPS workers leaving the company shipping facility where a fellow employee opened fire early Wednesday. Four people, including the gunman, were killed and two other wounded. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein also issued a statement late Wednesday morning, one that recalled San Francisco’s worst mass shooting — 1993’s 101 California Street attack, in which nine people died.
“I was heartbroken to learn that yet another senseless act of gun violence has marred our wonderful city,” Feinstein said. “My heart goes out to the victims and their families, and to everyone affected by this despicable act. “I can’t help but recall the 101 California Street shooting in 1993, when eight people lost their lives. Violence is never the answer, but the continuing scourge of gun violence is particularly disheartening.”
SFPD officers and emergency responders outside of the UPS facility at 17th and Utah Streets shortly after a shooting at the facility on Wednesday morning. (Adam Grossberg/KQED)
This post will be updated. KQED’s Holly Kernan, Ted Goldberg, Ryan Levi, John Sepulvado, Miranda Leitsinger and Adam Grossberg contributed to this report.
Dan Brekke is a blogger, reporter and editor for KQED News, responsible for online breaking news coverage of topics ranging from California water issues to the Bay Area's transportation challenges. In a newsroom career that began in Chicago in 1972, Dan has worked as a city and foreign/national editor for The San Francisco Examiner, editor at Wired News, deputy editor at Wired magazine, managing editor at TechTV as well as for several Web startups.
Since joining KQED in 2007, Dan has reported, edited and produced both radio and online features and breaking news pieces. He has shared in two Society of Professional Journalists Norcal Excellence in Journalism awards — for his 2012 reporting on a KQED Science series on water and power in California, and in 2014, for KQED's comprehensive reporting on the south Napa earthquake.
In addition to his 44 years of on-the-job education, Dan is a lifelong student of history and is still pursuing an undergraduate degree.
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