Armenian community suffers third hate crime incident in two months

A shooting at an Armenian school over the weekend in San Francisco has sparked a new hate crime investigation — the third hate crime against an Armenian establishment in the city within the last two months.

Around 2:25 a.m. Saturday, officers patrolling the city’s Stonestown neighborhood heard gunshots near the Krouzian-Zekarian-Vasbouragan Armenian School at 825 Brotherhood Way.

Officers searched the area to no avail, but noticed a sign outside the school was riddled with bullet holes. No one was injured in the shooting, police said.

The shooting is the second hate crime to occur at the school.

On July 24, suspects were seen on surveillance video breaking into the same school and vandalizing its walls with graffiti that conveyed anti-Armenian messages. The suspects in that case remain at large, police said.

Then, early Thursday morning, firefighters extinguished a suspected arson fire at the St. Gregory The Illuminator Armenian Apostolic Church at 51 Commonwealth Ave. in the city’s Laurel Heights neighborhood.

Although no one was injured in the blaze, it caused extensive damage to the church’s office and library, among other facilities. The suspected arson fire drew outrage from District Attorney Chesa Boudin, as well as members of the city’s Armenian community.

A GoFundMe campaign to help the church with repair costs has already raised more than $40,000 of its $100,000 goal as of Monday afternoon. The page can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/f/san-francisco-armenian-church-amp-community-offices.

Anyone with information about any of the cases is asked to contact to police’s 24-hour anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or to text a tip to TIP411 with “SFPD” at the beginning of the message.