A man arrested on suspicion of shooting and killing another man in a South of Market apartment building early Saturday morning is expected to be released from jail without charges this evening, according to a spokesman for the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.
The district attorney’s office did not file charges in the case by a 6 p.m. deadline so Amisi Sudi Kachepha, 68, is expected to be released this evening pending further investigation, district attorney’s spokesman Alex Bastian said.
Kachepha was arrested after he was found at the scene of the fatal shooting of Stephen Guillermo, 26, who was killed around 1:40 a.m. Saturday at his apartment building in the 900 block of Mission Street.
Guillermo’s family called on prosecutors to file charges against Kachepha at the city’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting today, alleging that Guillermo was shot after he accidentally entered Kachepha’s apartment in the same building.
According to his older cousin, Emil Guillermo, Stephen Guillermo was returning home after a night out with friends when he went to the wrong floor in his apartment building.
When he tried to get into what he believed was his unit that he shared with his mother and two younger siblings he was unable to enter and the man living there shot him, according to Emil Guillermo.
Police responded to the shooting and pronounced him dead at the scene.
His cousin, younger brother, sister and a longtime friend, called for city leaders to put pressure on San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon to charge the suspected shooter.
“His fatal mistake was getting off on the wrong floor,” Emil Guillermo told the Board of Supervisors.
Outside of the meeting, Emil Guillermo said, “we shouldn’t make it easy for people to use guns without consequences.”
Stephen Guillermo’s brother and sister, Marc and Sharmaine, 23 and 20, respectively, echoed their cousin’s demands for justice.
Sharmaine Guillermo told the supervisors, “How are they to allow the man who killed my brother to be free and return to the house where my family has lived for 18 years?”
She continued, “Our home which is supposed to be our haven is not safe with a man like that.”
Emil Guillermo described Stephen Guillermo, who was expecting to graduate from San Francisco State University with a degree in International Relations this June, as a second father to his siblings after their father died a few years ago.
Stephen Guillermo and his family moved to San Francisco from the Philippines when he was 8 years old.
According to his cousin, Stephen Guillermo was the family breadwinner, working two jobs at the ride-sharing service Lyft and at Puma selling shoes while attending classes. He had gone to San Francisco’s Washington High School in the Richmond District.
“My brother and second father was taken away from me,” his brother Marc Guillermo said. “We all loved him.”
An online fundraiser has been set up to help the family pay for a memorial service for Stephen Guillermo.
As of this afternoon more than $6,200 had been raised on the EverRibbon site. The donation page can be viewed at www.everribbon.com/ribbon/view/17200.
Sasha Lekach, Bay City News
