SAN FRANCISCO—On Friday, February 7, the San Francisco Police Department reported that they arrested three armed suspects and seized multiple illegal firearms following a weeks-long investigation that spanned across the city, SFPD Chief Bill Scott announced Friday.
“This investigation is a testament to how hard our investigators work every day to keep San Francisco safe,” said Police Chief Scott. “I want to thank all the officers in this case whose diligent work helped get dangerous individuals and illegal weapons off our streets.”
It started on January 6, at approximately 5:15 p.m., when officers responded to the area of Cargo Way and Amador Street regarding a hit-and-run traffic collision involving a solo vehicle. Officers arrived on scene and discovered that multiple subjects fled the crashed vehicle armed with firearms. During the investigation, officers located a loaded assault pistol inside the vehicle.
Officers from the Community Violence Reduction Team (CVRT) identified Willie Lefiti, 27, and Caleb Tuimavave, 24, of San Francisco as the suspects in the incident.
Officers from CVRT obtained arrest warrants for Lefiti and Tuimavave as well as search warrants for their residences and vehicles.
On February 6, members of CVRT and SFPD’s Specialists and Tactical Team simultaneously conducted surveillance of Lefiti’s and Tuimavave’s residences located in the Bayview and Mission Districts to serve the search warrants.
Officers watched Tuimavave leaving his residence located on the 1400 block of Valencia Street. They continued surveillance of Tuimavave to Daily City where he was placed under arrest without incident. Officers searched Tuimavave and seized a firearm with a high-capacity magazine he was carrying.
The SFPD Tactical Team conducted a search of Tuimavave’s residence and located and detained a male subject inside. Officers developed probable cause to arrest the detained male who was identified as Pio Tofi, 23, of San Francisco.
During the search, officers located and seized multiple firearms, loaded magazines, and ammunition for different types of firearms.
During the search, officers also discovered stolen merchandise that was taken in a commercial burglary last month in the Richmond District that was featured in an ABC7 News story titled, “Business owner questions SFPD’s effectiveness after $30K loss from repeat smash-and-grabs.” Authorities returned the stolen merchandise to the business owner this week.
Tuimavave was placed under arrest and booked into San Francisco County Jail for his arrest warrant and multiple firearm-related charges. He was separately booked for the commercial burglary in the Richmond District.
Tofi was placed under arrest and booked into San Francisco County Jail for an outstanding warrant out of San Mateo County and three counts of possession of an assault weapon (30605 (a) PC) and possession or selling of short, barreled rifles (33215 PC).
The SFPD Tactical Team conducted a search of Lefiti’s residence located on the 100 block of Middle Point Rd. During the search warrant service, Lefiti was located and placed under arrest without incident. He was booked into San Francisco County jail for his arrest warrant and parole violation (3056 PC).
The SFPD is still investigating the case. Anyone with details should contact the SFPD at 415-575-4444 or Text a Tip to TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD.
