Youths wielding paintball guns in SF blast Muni bus and driver

An SFPD patrol car. An SFPD patrol car. Photo: Filipa Ioannou Photo: Filipa Ioannou Image 1 of / 28 Caption Close Youths wielding paintball guns in SF blast Muni bus and driver 1 / 28 Back to Gallery

Three youths gave a Muni bus a new paint job when they blasted it with paintball guns in the Mission District of San Francisco, then fired at the driver when she got off the bus to investigate, police said Wednesday.

The incident Tuesday morning was at least the fourth attack involving paintball guns this month in San Francisco, officials said.

The 36-year-old driver stopped the bus at Cesar Chavez and Mission streets about 10:07 a.m. when three boys, estimated to be 10 to 14 years old, walked up and started shooting at the front of the coach with paintball guns, according to the San Francisco Police Department.

The driver got off the bus and the three boys fled, but not before one wheeled around and shot her multiple times with paintball pellets, police said. She was not injured.

“She went out of the bus to investigate and then she realized she was getting shot by a paintball gun,” said Officer Robert Rueca, a police department spokesman.

At this point, the attack appears to be random, Rueca said.

On July 3, four men reported being followed by two cars and fired at with paintball guns in the Bayview neighborhood, according to police.

Less than a week later, on July 9, a 51-year-old man was walking along the 700 block of Jamestown Avenue near Bayview Park about 10:37 p.m. when a man shot him with a paintball gun and fled the scene, police said.

On Sunday about 11:20 p.m., a 57-year-old woman was unloading items from her parked car on Yosemite Avenue, between Keith and Third streets, when someone shot her with paintball pellets from a passing car, bruising her arm, according to police.

It remains under investigation whether the attacks are linked, police said.

“Our investigators always look for a common thread with any of our incidents,” said Rueca. “But at this point we’re not able to state if it is or it isn’t related.”

Filipa Ioannou is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: fioannou@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @obioannoukenobi