SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— Nearly 100 residents of San Francisco’s Visitacion Valley neighborhood gathered inside the Asian Pacific American Community Center (APACC) on Monday to discuss a series of violent crimes in the area this summer.

San Francisco Visitacion Valley Residents Fearful After Violent Summer Robberies

Citizens at the community meeting said they want more police security, but city leaders have said the public needs to play a role as well.

The community is fearful after a recent robbery incident where a woman was shot in the face with a pellet gun and another where the woman was dragged off of a Muni bus. People noted at least three other recent violent robberies.

Rex Tabora, who works at the APACC said people in the Asian community are afraid to go out, even during the daytime.

“What I’ve done since I’ve got to Ingleside is I’ve developed our investigation team to look more at the patterns of these crimes and try to find the suspect because I believe it’s only five percent of the criminals are committing most of the crime,” said San Francisco Police Department’s Ingleside Captain Joe McFadden.

Community leaders have said many witnesses to crimes don’t come forward for fear of retaliation.

The police message at the community meeting was for any crime witnesses to step forward and that they’d be there to help, but couldn’t help without the community.