SFPD arrests two for carjacking in Sanchez stairs car flip

July 26, 2023
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The San Francisco Police Department announced Wednesday that it had arrested two suspects for carjacking related to the dramatic car crash over the weekend, in which a white sedan sped off the Sanchez Street staircase, flipped in mid-air and slammed into the sidewalk below after ripping out a tree.

The police arrested Kevin Nelson, 36, and Jennifer Bonham, 31, on suspicion of carjacking and related crimes. The two were apprehended on Tuesday, July 25, at 5:54 p.m., the police said, when officers located the pair on Pine Street, in Nob Hill, between Larkin and Polk streets.

They were both taken into custody without violence, the police said.

Bonham was booked into San Francisco jail on Tuesday, according to booking logs, and remains in custody. Nelson was taken to the hospital for injuries related to the car crash over the weekend, according to the police, and remains there.

The pair were two of five people captured on dramatic home surveillance footage showing them exiting an allegedly stolen white Lincoln sedan after they drove it through a barricade and off of the a two-story staircase on Sanchez Street, crashing into the sidewalk below and felling a tree.

Passers-by were filmed rushing to the crashed car and prying open its door, so the occupants could escape. The first two occupants out of the allegedly stolen vehicle dash up the stairs, saying “I’m sorry, we gotta go” and fleeing the scene. The other three walk away from the scene minutes later, as a fire engine approaches the crash.

It is unclear where Nelson and Bonham appear in the video.

Mission High School 18th St The thieves crashed into a barrier and flew down the Sanchez St. steps, flipping the car and then fleeing on foot. Hancock St Church St 4 19th St Dolores Park Cumberland St A group of thieves allegedly hit a man with a skateboard and stole his white Lincoln. 1 They rapidly drove west and then north up Sanchez St. 3 Sanchez St 2 They started east down 20th St. but turned west when blocked by cars and pedestrians. Liberty St 20th St

They rapidly drove west and then north up Sanchez St. 3 Sanchez St 4 The thieves crashed into a barrier and flew down the Sanchez St. steps, flipping the car and then fleeing on foot. Cumberland St 20th St 19th St 1 Church St 2 A group of thieves allegedly hit a man with a skateboard and stole his white Lincoln. They started east down 20th St. but turned west when blocked by cars and pedestrians. Dolores Park

Map by Will Jarrett. Basemap from Mapbox.

An eyewitness who had a view of the precipitating carjacking on Church Street near 20th Street described a chaotic scene: The car’s owner was struck by a skateboard during the theft, rolled down a nearby embankment, and yelled at the group stealing his car. He tried to chase them, managing to get his hands on a back door, but they “slammed on the gas,” she said, and motored off.

The allegedly stolen Lincoln then got stuck in a throng of cars and pedestrians near Dolores Park before turning around and speeding off.

Just seconds later, the group crashed through the Sanchez barricade and plummeted two stories, winding up wheels-up a block away.

The car crash and the immediate aftermath. Video courtesy Julia Brown.

The allegedly stolen car speeding off the Sanchez Street barricades. Video courtesy Julia Brown.

Source: Mission Local