I met my neighbors yesterday. We stood on the corner of Girard and Silver for a couple hours, smoking cigarettes, chatting and trying to stay out of the afternoon sun. I also met two cops and saw members of the SWAT team ducking under the “Police line do not cross” tape with their thigh-length guns and padded vests. It was the biggest gathering in Nob Hill since Pride.Around 3 p.m. a man called APD saying he had a gun and was going to shoot anyone who tried to enter his house, according to police. The standoff lasted four hours—complete with megaphones and Army-green Hummers—and ended with the unidentified man exiting the house voluntarily. No one was hurt. The same questions emerged repeatedly from the stream of redirected traffic. “What’s going on?”“I live right over there. Can’t I just go home?”Two foreign exchange students from Germany told me they’d planned on running home to get a tennis racket, only to discover the sirens and police tape. A family worried about leaving their dog in the house. Another man asked the police if he could free his employees from behind the barricade. A group of guys took one look at the situation and retreated to Walgreens for beer.
Standoff At Girard
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