SAN FRANCISCO—On Monday, October 19, the San Francisco Police Department held a virtual town hall meeting regarding the officer-involved shooting that took place in downtown San Francisco on October 10.
The SFPD recalled that the incident occurred on October 17 at approximately 11:26 p.m., when officers responded to a carjacking report with a knife on Market and Gough Streets. While the officers Kyle Roach and Nicholas Delgado were chasing and pursuing the suspect on Otis and Gough Streets, an officer-involved shooting occurred. The suspect was shot and died at the scene, the SFPD noted.
The San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) identified the suspect as 21-year-old Cesar Antonio Vargas of Fairfield. The authorities described Vargas was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, with the name GAP on it, eyeglasses and dark pants.
The SFPD updated the following statement on their website about the details of the incident from the town hall meeting:
“Investigators believe that Vargas attempted to enter several other vehicles in the area of Market and Valencia Streets on October 10 between approximately 11:15 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.”
During the town hall meeting, multiple videos showed Vargas jumping up and down on the hood, windshield and roof of a dark-colored Toyota Prius vehicle, and pushed a passenger’s chest from a muni bus with a knife held in his right hand. Body camera footage showed that the officers shot Vargas after they told him to “get on the ground right now” and “put the knife down” several times. Vargas ran toward the officers with his knife.
According to Bryan-Braker Funeral Home’s website, Vargas was a native and long-term resident of Fairfield. He graduated from Fairfield High School in 2016 and started firefighting training at Sugar Pine Conservation Fire Camp in Shasta County. He worked the Northern California wildfires while serving with California Fire in 2019.
The incident is still currently under investigation by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, the San Francisco Police Department Investigative Services Division (ISD), the SFPD Internal Affairs Division (IAD), the Department of Police Accountability (DPA) and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME).
