SAN FRANCISCO. Chaos erupted as a car plowed into the Chinese consulate in San Francisco on Monday, coming to a halt in the lobby and resulting in police shooting the driver, who later succumbed to injuries at the hospital, officials confirmed.
San Francisco police stated that they were unsure of the motive behind the actions of the unidentified driver who crashed through the front of the consulate. The consulate is situated on a major street, facing the city’s Japantown neighborhood. The Chinese Consulate General characterized the incident as a “violent attack” in a statement.
Police swiftly responded to the consulate after receiving a report of a vehicle crashing into the building, urging people to steer clear of the area. Video footage from the scene depicted a blue Honda sedan inside the consulate’s visa office lobby.
Officers entered the building, established contact with the suspect, and subsequently opened fire, as explained by San Francisco Police Sergeant Kathryn Winters during a brief news conference. Despite efforts to save the suspect’s life, he later succumbed to his injuries at a hospital.
Details regarding the sequence of events leading up to the shooting, the number of officers involved, and whether the driver possessed a weapon were not disclosed by the police. Thankfully, there were no reports of injuries among individuals inside the building.
San Francisco police are now working in collaboration with investigators from the U.S. State Department and the Chinese Consulate to unravel the circumstances surrounding this incident. Sergeant Kathryn Winters noted, “I wish I could give you more, but this is a very complex investigation.”
In response to the incident, the Chinese Consulate General issued a demand for more information about the event and requested that it be “dealt with seriously in accordance with the law.” The consulate’s statement strongly condemned the violent attack.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin reiterated the statement during a daily briefing on Tuesday, without providing specific details about damage to the consulate or any injuries sustained by staff and visitors. Wang urged the U.S. to swiftly investigate the incident and take effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese diplomatic missions and personnel, referencing the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, a 1961 agreement governing international relations.
Notably, the San Francisco consulate has been targeted in the past, with one of the most significant incidents being a fire set at the main entrance by a Chinese man on New Year’s Day in 2014. The fire caused damage to a section of the building’s exterior. The man, a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, attributed his actions to voices he claimed to hear and was subsequently sentenced to nearly three years in prison.
San Francisco is currently preparing to host next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which will bring together world leaders from Pacific Rim nations. President Joe Biden plans to attend, but it remains uncertain whether Chinese President Xi Jinping will participate.
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
