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- Dec 4, 2005
Wow...
A 15-year-old San Francisco youth facing charges in the weekend slaying at the Metreon shopping center told police that he opened fire after he got into an argument over the victim's having not traveled fast enough down an escalator, investigators said Monday.
The victim, Michael Price Jr., 18, of Oakland was leaving the gaming arcade at the complex at Fourth and Mission streets with his cousin and friends at the time of the shooting at 7 p.m. Sunday.
As Price was going down the escalator, the unidentified teenage suspect behind him complained to a friend who was with him about the man ahead simply standing on the escalator step rather than walking as the escalator went down.
Once they were down the escalator, an argument began. Witnesses said the youth threatened to open fire during the argument, saying, "I'll pop a cap in your+%*%."
The suspect told police that Price turned around and appeared to take a fighting position and that was when the 15-year-old got out the gun and fired.
"This was a senseless, stupid shooting," said Inspector Mike Mahoney of the San Francisco police homicide detail. "He wasn't walking fast enough - that is what he told me.
"This never should have happened."
Price was shot at least three times and died at San Francisco General Hospital at 7:30 p.m.
The suspect was quickly arrested with the help of police Capt. Dan McDonagh, who was helping to supervise police patrols at the nearby Oracle Corp. conference and saw the youth running.
"He had the gun in his hand," said McDonagh. "I drew my weapon. He turned and ran down the traffic lane. He turned again, but there were so many people around. He fled. I chased him up into Bloomingdale's. It was quite a chase. He was knocking things over. But when he got out of Bloomingdale's, there were units right there, and they grabbed him."
Along the way, the suspect dumped the gun on the street, he said.
"It was a quick chase, but it was long for me," McDonagh said.
The youth was on probation at the time stemming from a grand theft case.
Price's mother, Davida Jeffries, said her son was a student at the Dewey Academy in Oakland. She said a cousin of the victim who was at the scene told her that he warned Price that the 15-year-old, who had talked about shooting, could be armed.
"I think he really has a gun, come on, let's go," the cousin reportedly told Price. As the group walked away, "That is when he fired the gun," Jeffries said, citing the cousin's account.
"He was a really sweet kid - he did well at school," Jeffries said of Price. "They shot him as he was leaving."
Sunday's slaying was the second fatal shooting near the Metreon since September. On Sept. 16, San Francisco resident Ronald Jacques, 27, was shot to death outside Jillian's restaurant and nightclub. The incident began as a fistfight between two men, witnesses said, then escalated into a brawl involving more than a dozen people. Police accused Kenoye Stroman, 23, of Oakland, of firing several shots into the crowd, killing Jacques and injuring a woman, then fleeing in a limousine.
San Francisco police chased the limousine and pulled it over in Oakland, where Stroman was arrested on suspicion of murder.
Metreon officials did not return calls seeking comment about the latest slaying