SFPD Shooting ends in Arrest of "Long-Gun Serial Robbers"

Three teenagers got nicked with the name “Long-Gun Serial Robbers.”  The name stemmed from a couple of robberies that ensued in early March, along with a carjacking, the teens were seen with a long, sawed-off rifle. Not a shotgun but a sawed-off rifle; by police yardstick, nearly 20 inches.

The wooden stock looks like old snakeskin in places. Not a gun you would use to take careful aim; there’s nothing careful about it; it’s a poor man’s luxury assault weapon; just holding it is an act of intimidation, as if to say, ‘Above all, I’m unstable, and if I don’t like you for any reason, and my likes never last more than a second, you won’t exist.’

Things come to a head for the Long Gun Robbers on March 5th when SFPD encounter one Eddie Tillman, 18, in the Bayview Housing Authority on Ingalls and Kiska.  The suspect was driving a 2011 BMW reported stolen the day before —from a mother with a five-year-old child.

Officers pursued the vehicle, cornered the man in a cul-de-sac, and got out to arrest him. But he’s long ago, gone awry; he slammed into reverse, hit a cop car, sent an officer flying, tried for another, and the police became fully engaged. They fired. The kid gets hit, but still looked for an exit; he crashed into another black and white, and then finally into a residential building.

Paramedics came, took him to the hospital; he recovers.  As for the officer hit by the car, “no life-threatening injuries,” according to SFPD media officer Gordon Shyy. “He was treated and released.”

Mr. Tillman later gave up two alleged accomplices: an unnamed juvenile and Travell Council, 19. They’re each held on $650,000 bail, and face charges of robbery, attempted robbery, carjacking and child endangerment.

Tillman, is held on those charges plus the alleged attack on police. He’s free to go if he can manage $945,000.  Incidentally, except for the carjacking, the robberies were all botched. In one case, the victim, out on 33rd Avenue, stalled the robbers outside his house long enough that a neighbor could be seen on a phone, presumably calling police. In another case, the victims simply fled and the long gun boys didn’t pursue.

Read more:

SF Appeal.com:  SFPD Shooting Leads to Arrest of “Long Gun Serial Robbers

SF-Police.org:  Long Gun Serial Robbers Arrested and Connected to George Court Officer Involved Shooting