Two Homicides Strike San Francisco in One Night

Two unrelated shootings struck San Francisco Tuesday night within minutes of each other, leaving one man and one woman dead in the Ingleside and Sunset districts. The killings appear to mark the 11th and 12th homicides in the city so far this year, a pace that has alarmed residents and raised uncomfortable questions about whether last year’s historic low in violence was an outlier.

The first shooting was reported at 10:43 p.m. on the 1800 block of Sunnydale Avenue in the Ingleside District. Officers arrived to find a male victim with gunshot wounds. They attempted to render aid at the scene before paramedics transported the man to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. SFPD has not released his identity or any information about what led to the shooting.

Essentially simultaneously, police responded to a home on the 2200 block of 22nd Avenue in the Sunset District, near Santiago Street and directly across from Lincoln High School. Officers found a woman suffering from a gunshot wound. She was also transported to a hospital and later pronounced dead. A male suspect was taken into custody, according to reporting from the scene. Neighbors watched from the street as officers secured the area, and a pool of blood was visible on the sidewalk outside the home.

Both cases remain active investigations. Anyone with information is asked to call the SFPD tip line at 415-575-4444, or text a tip to TIP411 beginning the message with “SFPD.” Tips can be submitted anonymously.

The double homicide lands against a backdrop that felt unthinkable just a year ago. In 2025, San Francisco recorded only 28 homicides for the full year, the lowest total since 1954. That number represented a 20 percent drop from 2024, which itself recorded just 35 killings. By any measure, the city had achieved something real on public safety.

What is happening now cuts against that trajectory sharply. Twelve homicides in roughly 84 days works out to approximately one killing per week. That rate is nearly double what the city averaged across all of 2025. For context, sustaining this pace through the end of the year would push the annual total past 60, more than twice last year’s count.

Criminologists and city officials are quick to warn against reading too much into short-term trends, and San Francisco’s homicide numbers are still modest compared to many American cities of similar size. But the back-to-back killings Tuesday are a gut-check moment for a city that had real momentum heading into the year.

The Sunset shooting is particularly striking in terms of location. The 2200 block of 22nd Avenue is a quiet residential stretch in one of the city’s more family-oriented neighborhoods. Lincoln High School sits directly across the street from the home where officers found the victim. The fact that a suspect was taken into custody suggests this was not a random act of street violence, though investigators have not confirmed any motive or relationship between the suspect and the victim.

The Ingleside shooting on Sunnydale Avenue is in a neighborhood that has historically seen more gun violence than the Sunset, but the absence of any suspect information there leaves the case open and the community unsettled.

SFPD has not issued any public statement connecting the two incidents beyond acknowledging both as active homicide investigations.

City leaders have pointed to various public safety initiatives over the past two years as drivers of the 2025 decline. Those programs deserve scrutiny now. Whether the current spike reflects a statistical blip, a shift in street-level dynamics, or some failure in enforcement and intervention is not yet clear. What is clear is that two families woke up Wednesday morning without someone they loved, and the city that celebrated a milestone last year has to reckon with the fact that progress on violent crime is not permanent.

Anyone with information on either killing is urged to contact SFPD.