After an intense search in the city's crime-ridden Bayview district, San Francisco police Sunday captured a man they allege shot and killed one of their own.The man, whom police would not identify Sunday evening, is being held at the main jail in San Francisco, police spokesman Sgt. Joe Buono said.The Saturday night shooting, in which another officer was injured, is believed to be the first time since 1994 that a San Francisco police officer was shot and killed in the line of duty. Officer Isaac Espinoza, 29, an eight-year veteran, was shot about 9:30 p.m. after he and a fellow officer approached a man ``of suspicious nature,'' said police spokesman Sgt. Neville Gittens.Espinoza died Saturday night at San Francisco General Hospital.Gittens declined to provide any other information about Espinoza or the second officer, Barry Parker.
A news conference is expected today.Parker, 38, a four-year San Francisco police veteran, was injured in the ankle during the shooting, but it was not clear if he, too, was shot, Gittens said. Parker was released from San Francisco General Hospital on Saturday night.Assault rifle usedThe plainclothes officers, both stationed at the Bayview district police station, were in a patrol car on the 1300 block of Newhall Street when they approached the man, who opened fire with an assault rifle. A weapon that may have been the one used in the crime was later found on the 1700 block of Palou Avenue, Gittens said.Gittens described the suspect as an African-American man in his 20s with his hair in cornrows and wearing a dark jacket, possibly a peacoat.Longtime Bayview district resident Herman Stewart, who lives about a block from where the shooting took place, said he heard shots from what he believed to be a large rifle Saturday night. But he did not go outside; he hears shots ``if not every day, then every other day.'' Crack dealers congregate outside his home, he said, and despite numerous calls to police, they cannot be dislodged.``This is a crack neighborhood. There's no peace and quiet here. We've been under siege for the past 10 years,,'' said Stewart, 57. The police ``don't put a stop to it.''Stewart did not know Espinoza or Parker. He did not know how much sympathy residents would muster for the slain police officer.``I feel bad about anybody getting shot,'' Stewart said, ``but people here cry over the people they know who got shot.''Feeling overlookedMayor Gavin Newsom has garnered headlines lately by racing to the Bayview and Hunters Point areas after shootings, and arriving on weekends to play pickup basketball games. The idea is to bring attention to troubled neighborhoods that residents feel have been overlooked for years.Funeral arrangements for Espinoza have not been completed. Since 1878, 95 San Francisco police officers have died in the line of duty, with the most recent deaths before Espinoza's occurring during a 2000 police helicopter crash, according to a Web site maintained by the San Francisco Police Officers Association.Anyone with information is asked to call the San Francisco Police Department at (415) 575-4444.