Posted on September 14, 2007

RICHMOND --Wary of each passing car, James Johnson stood behind a gate near a makeshift memorial in the Richmond flatlands Thursday. He said he wanted to walk farther away before discussing the latest spate of shootings that has killed three people and wounded eight others. He didn't want to get shot.

"This thing is crazy," Johnson said. "This place epitomizes the word 'ghetto.' There's a prevailing air, an epidemic of total helplessness."

Johnson, 49, felt he had every right to be scared as he stood near the memorial honoring Jewell Mayweather Jr., 23, the nephew of a neighborhood activist who has tried to rally residents in Richmond to halt the violence.

Mayweather became a casualty of what police describe as a gang war Tuesday when he was shot to death at Second Street and Macdonald Avenue. A cluster of balloons now marks the spot.

Adding to the city's unease was an incident Thursday in which a police cruiser's back window was shattered outside the department's new headquarters on Regatta Boulevard. The officer driving the car, a 25-year veteran, thought the cruiser had been struck by a sniper's bullet, but investigators found no shell casings nearby.

"We aren't 100 percent sure that a gunshot was fired," Deputy Police Chief Ed Medina said. "Without that evidence, we are left with questions just like you are." Medina said it was possible that the window simply shattered because of temperature changes or a defect. However, with police having put SWAT teams on the street to try to end retaliatory gang violence, it was not difficult for authorities to believe that officers themselves - or anyone in the city - could be a target.

"Richmond's endemic, chronic violence continues to take a toll on our residents," Mayor Gayle McLaughlin said. "My heart goes out to all the families who continue to suffer this violence. It is without a doubt the most pressing problem in Richmond."

The mayor noted that although homicides are down by nearly one-third this year - there have been 20 killings in 2007, compared with 28 this time last year - the number of shootings that haven't resulted in fatalities is as high as last year. "This is unacceptable," McLaughlin said.

The five shootings on Tuesday and one on Wednesday are believed to be part of a war between gangs in North Richmond and the central part of the city. In response, the department decided to have SWAT officers help patrol the city Wednesday after they finished previously scheduled training exercises, Medina said.

An extra complement of about a dozen officers was on hand Thursday to supplement the regular patrol contingent, the deputy chief said. Still, he noted that 100 officers could be deployed to a neighborhood, only to have shooting break out once they leave.

A year ago this week, four people were killed in a similar burst of violence in Richmond and unincorporated North Richmond.

"These are our kids killing each other at a young age. It's just driving me crazy," said neighborhood activist Freddie Jackson, 43, who helped establish the city's Tent City Peace Movement, in which residents pitch tents to take a stand against violence. His work took on a tragic significance when Mayweather, his nephew, was killed about 8 p.m. Tuesday. Jackson said he saw Mayweather riding his bike just moments before he was killed.

About 20 minutes after Mayweather was gunned down, Dwayne Moore, 19, was shot and killed at South 37th Street and Wall Avenue. "R.I.P. Dwayne 'Wayne Head,' " read a balloon on a street-sweeping sign not far from a lawn and driveway stained with blood. Just steps away is a church.

Jackson said the tents will be back up in open spaces Sept. 25, the one-year anniversary of the start of Tent City. But he added, "We can't use the tents as a crutch. It's just like a symbol, to bring awareness to the people."

E-mail the Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com .

This article appeared on page B - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle