Mayor London Breed says Ricky Pearsall shooting in Union Square is rare

“Mayor London Breed described the incident as a ‘terrible and rare occurrence’ for Union Square, emphasizing San Francisco’s relatively low violent crime rates but acknowledging that ‘the data goes out the window sometimes when something happens like this.’ Officials said police presence in the area would immediately be increased.”
— S an Francisco Chronicle , Sept. 1, 2024

Late Saturday afternoon over Labor Day weekend, 23-year-old San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall, a first-round pick in the latest NFL draft, was shot in the chest during a robbery attempt in San Francisco’s Union Square. A 17-year-old boy tried to steal Pearsall’s Rolex watch, and in the ensuing scuffle Pearsall was shot along with his teen attacker, who was wounded with his own handgun before police quickly arrived and arrested him.

Videos of Pearsall, shirtless and holding the bloody garment over the wound as he was guided into an ambulance, dominated the news. He was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital and released the next day. Sources say the suspect is a gang member and had been released the previous week in his hometown of Tracy, Calif., on gun charges.

During a press conference where she was flanked by San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, Mayor London Breed described the incident as a ‘terrible and rare occurrence’ for Union Square, pointing to San Francisco’s relatively low violent crime rates but also acknowledging that “the data goes out the window sometimes when something happens like this.” While it may be rare for a famous football player to be shot, almost the exact same crime happened in Union Square four years ago.

On May 14, 2020, Fremont police identified 21-year-old San Francisco resident Vermond Jones as one of three suspects in a crime spree that included a violent home invasion robbery. During the home invasion, suspects pointed firearms at the victim, made the victim lie on the ground, ransacked the residence, and stole multiple items. The suspects also attempted two other robberies in the East Bay and the brutal robbery of a woman in San Francisco — all on the same day.

Jones had an extensive and violent criminal history going back to when he was a juvenile, and he was a documented member of the Knock Out Posse gang. He had been arrested for 35 separate charges with six separate cases pending in San Francisco, including multiple counts of burglary, carrying a loaded firearm, grand theft from a person, multiple counts of possession of a stolen vehicle, false imprisonment, and child endangerment. Despite all of this, Jones was free on an ankle monitor, which he wore during the crime spree.

On Oct. 1, 2020, on Geary Street in Union Square, a group of suspects attempted to steal a Rolex watch from a man. As a struggle ensued, the victim was able to turn the gun around and shoot one of the suspects — Vermond Jones — who later died at the hospital. During his 21 years, Jones was arrested more than a dozen times and charged with over 70 crimes. …

While Breed visited Pearsall in the hospital and posted a number of times to social media about the Saturday afternoon incident, she hasn’t posted once about another brutal assault that occurred the very next night. South Africa-born Wendy Drew, a chef who appeared in the Netflix limited series You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment , had just left Café Terminus, located on California Street in the city’s financial district, when a random man called her a racial slur. Drew, who is Black, asked why he called her the slur, and the man began punching her in the head. She pulled her attacker, who was walking a dog, into a Drumm Street liquor store, where they struggled while she screamed for onlookers to call 911.

In a horrific video posted to the San Francisco Standard website (which deserves a warning for graphic content), Drew is seen on the floor, with her attacker in a bear hug as he tries to escape. “His dog comes by. I thought the dog wants to bite me, but the poor thing was just licking my face. I loosened my grip, and that’s when he started repeatedly punching me in the face,” she told The Standard.

As the man ran out the front door, Drew called for her boyfriend who, along with several others, held the attacker until police arrived. He was arrested on suspicion of assault likely to cause great bodily injury, committing a hate crime, and providing false information to an officer. Drew was taken to the hospital with a concussion and a broken nose. The man was identified as 31-year-old transient Irvin Rivera-Lara, and a quick scan of his record finds a long and violent past.

In July 2023, Rivera-Lara was arrested for beating Peterson Harter, co-owner of Sandy’s Muffulettas sandwich shop in the Haight-Ashbury. In an Instagram post shortly after the incident, Harter has visible injuries to his face. He said Rivera urinated on trash cans near the store before a verbal confrontation got physical. “I can’t believe I live in a city where people just piss in the street and come and punch you in the face and get away with it,” he said.

That time, Rivera-Lara was booked on charges of battery with serious bodily injury and two separate arrest warrants unrelated to the assault — one for sexual battery in San Francisco County and the other for a prohibited person possessing a firearm in Napa County.

In gang member Vermond Jones’s 21 years, he was arrested more than a dozen times and charged with more than 70 crimes.

Records show Rivera-Lara has been booked under a number of name variations in multiple counties over the past 13 years.

In Napa County, Rivera-Lara (under the name Irvin A. Lara and Irvin Lara) was arrested in 2011 for battery and court jurisdiction of child for parental neglect. That same year, he was arrested for possessing/manufacturing/selling dangerous weapons, revocation of probation, and street terrorism (another term for gang involvement). In 2012, he was arrested for revocation of probation and public intoxication.

In 2014, he was arrested in San Mateo County by Daly City Police for carrying a concealed dirk or dagger.

In 2017, he was arrested in San Francisco County for false imprisonment by violence, infliction of corporal injury on a spouse/cohabitant, vandalism over $5,000, carrying a concealed weapon, assault likely to cause bodily injury, and disobeying court orders.

In 2018, he was again arrested in San Francisco on revocation of probation, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, unlawful sexual intercourse with a child, and dissuading a victim/witness from testifying against him. Just eight months later, Lara-Rivera was arrested again in San Francisco for child endangerment.

In 2021, he was again arrested in San Francisco for preventing a witness from testifying, dissuading a witness from reporting a crime, false imprisonment by violence, battery on a police officer, battery on a spouse/cohabitant, unlawful sexual intercourse with a child, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and warrants.

Counting last year’s arrest for beating Harter, Lara-Rivera has been arrested multiple times over the past 13 years for violent felonies in three counties. In San Francisco he has faced three district attorneys (George Gascón, Chesa Boudin, and Brooke Jenkins) and an untold number of judges, yet he was free to send a woman to the hospital just days ago. As Harter said in his Instagram post: “I’m fed up with this city. I can’t just be outside and just run a business without getting punched in the face.” (He added a number of expletives for emphasis.)

Let’s be honest: if Harter or Drew were professional football players, the police chief, district attorney, and mayor would have held a press conference — and maybe, if they were really lucky, the mayor would have visited their hospital beds.

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