Seattle Times staff reporters
A man fatally shot by San Francisco police Saturday was a "person of interest" in last week's fatal shooting of 19-year-old Tanaya Gilbert in South Seattle, San Francisco news outlets reported Sunday.
San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said the man was a 19-year-old Washington state parolee sought for questioning in Gilbert's slaying, the San Francisco Chronicle said in a story posted on its website.
The man, who was shot Saturday afternoon while fleeing from officers who had tried to cite him for transit-fare evasion, recently had been released from a prison in Washington after serving time for convictions stemming from a King County sex offense, the newspaper quoted Sura as saying.
Suhr did not release the man's name, but he told the Chronicle Seattle police detectives were seeking him as a person of interest in the killing of Gilbert, who was pregnant, and the wounding of three others in the same attack.
Rose Bankston, Gilbert's aunt, told The Seattle Times Sunday night that a Seattle police detective informed Gilbert's mother, Chekel Cox, earlier in the day that a suspect in Gilbert's slaying had been shot and killed by San Francisco police.
Bankston said the detective told her that ballistic tests would be conducted on a .45-caliber pistol recovered in the San Francisco incident to see if it had been used in Gilbert's killing.
Other San Francisco media also reported elements of the story:
• KPIX television in San Francisco quoted Suhr as saying the man is a parolee possibly connected to the shootings.
Suhr said the man, who was shot during a confrontation with San Francisco police at a transit platform, was a parolee from Washington, KPIX reported.
• KGO ABC7 News, on its website, quoted San Francisco police as saying the man was a person of interest in Gilbert's shooting.
• The San Francisco Examiner newspaper, on its website, quoted Suhr as saying the man was on parole for two felony convictions in Washington state and was a person of interest in the Seattle shootings.
Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson said Sunday night he couldn't provide any information, and a San Francisco police spokesman would neither confirm nor deny a connection.
A gun believed to have been used by the man has been recovered, The Associated Press quoted San Francisco police as saying.
But no details have been reported that link the man to the Seattle shootings.
The man was shot after San Francisco officers working on a crime-reduction detail tried to question him on a Muni light-rail platform in San Francisco's Bayview District, Sgt. Michael Andraychak was quoted by AP.
As the man ran, he fired at officers, who were not hurt, Andraychak said.
At least one officer returned fire, The Associated Press reported.
In the Seattle case, Gilbert was shot twice just before 11 p.m. Wednesday, as she sat in a parked car with a 16-year-old girl in the 9600 block of 54th Avenue South. The 16-year-old also was shot, as were a 21-year-old man in another parked car and a 17-year-old boy sitting on the hood of a nearby car.
Gilbert was a former Renton High School student who turned 19 Tuesday and was seven weeks pregnant, family members said.
"She was a nice, gentle, sweet young lady," a cousin, Monique Anderson, said last week.
Gilbert worked at Wild Waves Theme Park and had just gotten a car, her family said.
Gilbert was declared dead at the scene, and the three others were taken to Harborview Medical Center with nonlife-threatening injuries, police said.
"It was a freak accident — she was in a wrong place at the wrong time," Bankston, her aunt, told the Chronicle. The shooter, she said, "had a dispute with someone on the street and he opened fire. She was an innocent girl caught in the crossfire. It's a sad case, just a sad case."
On Thursday, as a candlelight vigil was held for Gilbert, police were called as at least one gunshot was heard at the other end of the street, at 54th Avenue South and South Roxbury Street.
Police said one of two suspects had pulled out a pistol and fired a shot into the passenger side of a silver-and-blue Dodge Magnum, which sped off. Two juvenile suspects, 15 and 17, were taken into custody.
JEFFREY HODSON / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Aufu Snow, 17, attends a vigil Thursday for Tanaya Gilbert, 19, who was shot and killed the night before. "When I found out what happened I made this shirt — because she's beautiful."
Tanaya Gilbert
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