San Francisco mourns the loss of Courtney Brousseau, a 22-year-old queer activist. Unknown gunmen shot Brousseau in San Francisco’s Dolores Park last Friday.
“I just ate a delicious burrito in Dolores park and for a brief moment everything felt okay,” Brousseau said on Twitter. He posted the tweet along with a pictureat 8:17 PM.
Moments later, two men in their twenties got out of a nearby vehicle and fired 50 to 60 shots. Brousseau and another 17-year-old bystander both got caught in the crossfire. The 17-year-old sustained non-life threatening injuries. Paramedics rushed Borousseau to the hospital where he died Monday.
Related: San Francisco goes purple to honor service workers hurt by the pandemic
Brousseau, who was a Twitter employee, also co-founded Gay for Transit, an organization aimed at promoting safety and visibility for LGBTQ people on San Francisco public transportation. He also volunteered at the California YMCA Youth and Government program.
I just ate a delicious burrito in Dolores park and for a brief moment everything felt okay pic.twitter.com/bTyWotvXDF
— Courtney Brousseau (@cbrewsayso) May 2, 2020
“[Brousseau] donated $50 a month to 10 different organizations,” said Gay for Transit co-founder Janice Li. “This is obviously incredibly shocking and tragic news for someone who was so eager to build community and for someone who has brought so much joy to our lives.”
The city’s BART tweeted sympathies saying, “We at BART will forever miss you, Courtney. Courtney asked us tough questions and demanded accountability while being our biggest supporter. We will never forget the joy you expressed when you finally boarded a Fleet of the Future train. Rest In Peace.”
Police have yet to make any arrests in connection with Brousseau’s killing. The investigation remains ongoing.
frapachino
Omg this is so sad! Our do nothing mayor and criminal radical new soft on crime DA will likely claim it’s a quality of life crime and create a special day for the killers!
Cam
This is how pathetic these Republican troll accounts are. This one is trying to deflect from the fact that an anti-LGBT hate crime just occurred, and use it as an excuse to attack Democrats in office.
To the right wing trolls, a murder is irrelevant, there just here to find any excuse to attack Democrats. My sympathies to Courtney Brousseau’s family and friends.
sjdoug
Please go away you Republican/Russian troll. Let us mourn in peace.
Den
I really find it hard to imagine someone more pitiful than you.
Do you ever actually use your brain or add anything of substance to a discussion?
dfbsbv
You must be a miserable human being. This is tragic….politics aside. If #45 wouldn’t have unleashed such hatred and vitriol we wouldn’t have had an increase in crimes like this.
Charlotte Hollis
Courtney Broussard was a good and kind being, who’s life was taken by true evil. Frap is correct – Our leadership is too soft on crime. How many of us have to die before corrective action is taken? I’m sick of you lilliputian dims, who cannot see the forest for the trees.
calpoidog
@Charlotte Holllis Please provide examples of our leaders being soft on murders. Letting people with drug infractions out, sure. But murder? Would love to see you support that one.
louisemunderwood
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rbernard
You are inappropriately politicizing a murderous crime of a member of our tribe, no one here appreciates your message, and we want you to leave us alone.
Black Pegasus
Was he targeted? Or was he near the actual targets of gang members? So much context is missing here.
Vince
When i lived in San Francisco in the late 90s there were allot of Asian, Black, and Hispanic gangs. My guess he was just at the wrong place and the wrong time.
Doug
He wasn’t targeted. He was just caught in the crossfire.
Den
The article refers to him and a teenager as being “caught in crossfire.” Dolores Park sits at the intersection of Eureka Valley and the Mission and has had a history of gang/drug presence for many years. Despite its popularity with newer millennial SF residents, the park still seems to have turf boundries, some parts are gay or hipsetr, and some parts are still gang turf. I’d never be there after the sun had gone down beyond Twin Peaks!
calpoidog
He was actually several blocks away from Dolores Park at Guerrero and 14th. Still, there are housing projects in the vicinity. Very very sad for such a promising young man.
arie570
That is what I was wondering too. Either way it is tragic but I wonder if they even knew who they were killing.
Vince
I find it absolutely amazing that they took the time to shoot off 60 bullets and no one at least got a license plate.
It’s a high-density area and not one of them could have taken a quick pic of it with their iPhone?
Den
Even though the park is jammed with people during the day, this was at sunset, and you can see the park is largely empty. There are never a whole lot of people on the street at the top of the park, and I suspect that anybody who was would not whip out their phone after shooting has started.
Jared MacBride
Depending on the weapons they used, 60 shots could have taken 3 or 4 seconds.
Tombear
Only the good die young! RIP
Kangol2
Very sad news. RIP Courtney Brousseau.
SoccerTruth
Last I visited Dolores Park in 2002 – I was repeatedly told by then boyfriend who lived a block away to avoid eye contact with the obvious drug dealers there. I’m from the East Coast where we nod to the drug dealers just to make sure that everything is kosher.
HiKo73
Goddamn it, this hurts.
jay traveler
Sad and shocking.
Thad
Dear God, no.
As a gay transit rider and fan, I feel such sadness. I salute Courtney’s work to make transit LGBT friendly. I mourn this loss.
I hope justice will be done.
rbernard
This one gripped me.
I lived in the Dolores Triangle near Delores Park in the lower Haight-Ashbury for a long time, 33 years, 1982-2015. Though petty crimes did occasionally occur there, it was a hip friendly neighborhood and wasn’t a deadly dangerous place with this kind of wanton violence. Though things started to get more rough around the time I retired in 2015, this horrific senseless violence is a new phenomenon and shouldn’t be tolerated and the perpetrators must be aggressively pursued, publicly prosecuted, and interred for the rest of their lives.
D_Bro
This is a very sad story. But it did not take place in Delores Park. It happened at 14th and Guerrero. It was caught on a traffic cam but the car and shooters are hard to identify. It happened 200 feet from my home.
stanhope
When shit like this happens and that Black man was gunned down while jogging…my mind goes to that old David Bowie song, This Is Not America…….this country, under trump has turned into a place I no longer recognize. Disregard for humanity, unprecedented greed, lies by the dozen each and every day and massive incompetence. Like Susan Hayward said to Patty Duke in the bathroom scene in Valley of the Dolls…one day you look up and wonder what the hell happened. Oh Andrew Cuomo, I hope you have your costume ready, you may be called to go on stage in the lead soon.
ScottOnEarth
Great comment, stanhope.
arie570
I agree.
nitejonboy
Queerty please get your facts straight and edit this piece….the man was not at Dolores park, he was blocks away on a street, and was clearly caught in the crossfire of something else, he was not targeted, yes it is tragic but let’s not start a war if there is not a cause for it, this was not homophobic in nature, they probably didn’t even notice him, this was a matter of urban crime, RIP god bless him, but he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
winemaker
Just another example of our one time jewel of California that over the last 30 years
or so has become an overpriced disgusting bum and crime ridden CRAP HOLE. Having been born in California and a long term San Francisco resident, I’m a bit of an expert about quality of life issues here in this one time clean, safe, affordable and prosperous city. Good luck getting the idiots in City Hall to take this seriously and as for london breed and chesa boudin, who voted for these worthless clowns dragging the quality of life here down all while sitting on their asses promoting their own personal agendas and flipping the ‘finger’ to the residents all while getting huge paychecks? So many people are leaving this one time great place and this is just one of the many examples to numerous to list here, sad to say
Aires the Ram
@winemaker: A voice of knowledge and reason. Thank you.
Chrisk
I can’t say as you’re wrong. Even in the late 90s when I was there it was very expensive. Today you have to be bringing in at least a 6 figure income to afford the obscenely priced shitholes available.
SF has always had a homeless population but nowhere near as bad as it is today. I visited two years ago and it was maneuvering between one homeless encampment to the next.
Michel-Ashley
Here in the UK my feelings of disdain make me feel so sad and I keep repeating to myself, WHY, WHY, WHY? My sadness goes to his family and friends and hopefully the bastards will be caught and severely punished!
The real Bruce
I agree with stanhope. What the hell has happened to my country? Too many guns in the wrong hands. Too much corruption in “our leaders” and not enough common sense. I really like listening to Gov. Cuomo, a calm voice amid the turmoil. Much better than the rubbish coming from The “Great” Pumpkin. Right after Halloween lets get rid of the Don O’lantern for good!
Aires the Ram
“Too many guns”?? Give me a break. What about previous barely restricted illegal immigration, criminal gangs from Central America, Illegal Alien CRIMINALS caught, deported, and coming right back across the border in mere days? What about the failure of sanctuary city and sanctuary state policies, restricting I.C.E. from getting rid of these ILLEGAL thugs? Those illegals here in gangs, do you REALLY think they’ve obtained their weapons LEGALLY? How stupid to think that. To purchase a weapon LEGALLY, you must pass an FBI background check, among other things, and to do so, you must be a LEGALLY born and/or Naturalized AMERICAN CITIZEN. They crossed over into our country ILLEGALLY, they live here ILLEGALLY, why in the fresh hell do you think they would obey ANY of our laws??