A Bayview-Hunters Point community activist is facing four separate counts of murder in slayings spanning two decades, marking the biggest single cold case break in San Francisco Police Department history.
Sauntek Harris, 44, appeared in court Wednesday but did not enter a plea to murder charges in a 2019 shooting and three slayings in 2002.
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WATCH HEREHe is being held without bail pending a hearing June 6.
Harris was working as a life coach at a local community center at the time of the Aug. 10, 2019, shooting of Dietrich Whitley, 34. Surveillance video showed gunfire erupted during a crowded block party gathering at a community center.
Authorities said Harris allegedly spotted Whitley — someone with whom he had clashed with previously — as he arrived at the center and Harris quickly ducked behind two cars. Harris is accused of then firing six shots, hitting Whitley once in the chest.
In November 2019, a judge ordered Harris to stand trial. But at the time, Harris’ attorney, deputy public defender, Landon Davis, argued Whitley was armed with a knife and cited evidence Harris was acting in self-defense. Davis also cited a series of clashes between the men.
Eventually, the case was dropped, only to be refiled now.
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Outside court Wednesday, Davis said his client was a wrongly accused family man. He said the 2019 slaying was justifiable and the three-decades-old cases were “weak.”
“I have serious concerns about the strength of the evidence in this case, especially given the fact that these cases are from 2002 – almost 25 years old – as well as the process led to the charges," he said.
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SIGN UP It is not clear what new evidence prosecutors obtained allowing them to file the cold case charges for crimes that occurred 23 years ago. Harris is now charged with the Jan. 18, 2002, robbery, carjacking and shooting death of 37-year-old Perry Michael Bradstreet. Authorities suspect two gunmen in the attack and earlier this month released composite sketches of the suspects, along with a $100,000 reward for help in that case. Bradstreet’s car was set on fire and abandoned in the Oakdale Housing Project in the Bayview. A second man, Shaun Britton, is charged in the Bradstreet attack along with Harris. Britton’s lawyer had no comment.
A month after the Bradstreet killing, on Feb. 24, 2002, Lorenzo Richards was gunned down inside an apartment building on George Street. Police recently offered a $100,000 reward in that case as well.
And on July 28, 2002, Gerald White, 37, was shot and killed. That attack came three days after White was summoned to a grand jury proceeding in the Bradstreet case. At the time, prosecutors suspect the attack was witness retaliation, as White was apparently seen entering the Hall of Justice to appear at the panel.
