Ejected Patron Allegedly Shoots Up Packed SoMa Sports Bar

SoMa bar and restaurant patrons ran for cover Sunday, when a man shot into a crowded sports bar.

According to San Francisco Police Department spokesperson Officer Joseph S. Tomlinson, shots were reported at a Third Street bar at around 7:04 p.m. on Sunday, a couple hours after the San Francisco 49ers’ Super Bowl loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. While Tomlinson didn’t disclose the exact location of the shooting — per SFPD policy, the name of a venue at which a crime occurs is almost never revealed, just the approximate address — multiple news outlets report that the bar in question was Polo Grounds Pub and Grill, a, eight-year-old pub just steps from Oracle Park.

Bar patrons tell ABC 7 that the alleged gunman was ejected from Polo Grounds after fighting with a woman. He then returned, and, according to bartender Michael Bowens (who spoke with NBC Bay Area), fired two or three shots inside the bar, then at least two more from outside, through Polo Grounds’ window.

No one was injured in the shooting, Tomlinson says. “It could have been a lot worse, with something like that, with six shots fired just randomly,” Bowens says. “It could have ricocheted and hit anybody. I think everybody is just kind of lucky in the sense nobody was hurt.”

Tomlinson says that the suspect fled in a maroon SUV, crashed into another driver and a streetlight pole on Fourth Street, and continued his escape on foot. He was arrested on Bluxome Street, not far from the scene of the shooting. As of publication time, the suspect hasn’t been named by officials, but his affiliation has been noted: according to KPIX, the car in which he fled “had at least one 49ers banner attached to it.”

And in other news...

• Katrina Rozelle, an award-winning East Bay pastry chef, officially retired this weekend after 33 years in the game. She says she’s shutterd her operations “because I’m tired. My hands are starting to get a little arthritis and I’m afraid if I don’t give them a break, then I’ll do some permanent damage.” [KPIX]
• A man was caught on video breaking into Hayes Valley Neapolitan pizzeria Doppio Zero at around 4 a.m. Sunday, eventually walking right out the door with its safe. [ABC 7]
• Dapper Dog, a five-year-old Castro Street restaurant that specialized in premium hot dogs, has closed. [Hoodline]
• After outgrowing her Oakland space, Filipino fusion baker Gemma Ballesteros has opened a new, bigger spot in downtown Hayward. [San Jose Mercury News]
• San Francisco’s former Potrero Power Station will be transformed into a mixed-use development, and its developer wants to turn its retro-looking former control room into a bar. [KPIX]
• New York Times restaurant critic Tejal Rao is apparently in the Bay Area, and is Instagramming up a storm.