Man shoots woman, kills himself in SoMa residence

One person was shot and killed, another shot and injured, on Natoma Street between 6th and 7th streets in San Francisco early Friday, Oct. 10, 2014. One person was shot and killed, another shot and injured, on Natoma Street between 6th and 7th streets in San Francisco early Friday, Oct. 10, 2014. Photo: Hamed Aleaziz, The Chronicle Photo: Hamed Aleaziz, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Man shoots woman, kills himself in SoMa residence 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A 29-year-old man with a history of domestic violence shot and seriously wounded a woman he lived with in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood early Friday morning before fatally turning the gun on himself, police said.

The suicide and attempted murder allegedly committed by Cedric Young Jr. on the 500 block of Natoma Street, between Sixth and Seventh streets, was the culmination of a series of disturbance calls from the same address. Police officials said later that they dealt with the calls as best they could.

The events came to a head, though, just after 5 a.m., when a caller reported to police that Young had barged into the home of his ex-girlfriend. The caller then said the woman had been shot.

She suffered a life-threatening wound to the chest and was being treated Friday at San Francisco General Hospital, said Officer Gordon Shyy, a police spokesman.

Shyy said the suspect, who was pronounced dead at the scene and later identified by the city medical examiner, had been in a relationship with the woman and lived with her. The name of the wounded woman was not released.

The shooting happened after a series of police calls. About 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Shyy said, someone reported a disturbance at the address, but officers weren’t dispatched because the incident appeared to be over while the caller was on the phone with a dispatcher.

At 9:15 p.m., police said, someone reported Young ringing the doorbell to the building. Police contacted both Young and the victim and told Young to leave, Shyy said. Officers determined that no crime had occurred.

Yet another call about the suspect ringing the doorbell came in at 10 p.m., Shyy said. This time, responding officers determined Young was drunk and booked him at County Jail.

Then, about an hour before the shooting, police received a call from the same address about a man breaking into the home after being released from the “drunk tank.”

Officers arrived and found Young seeking to retrieve his belongings, Shyy said. The victim agreed to allow him to do so, and officers were on the scene as Young left, Shyy said.

After the subsequent attack and suicide, Shyy said, police were trying to determine where Young had obtained the gun he used.

Young had been arrested in 2012 on suspicion of felony domestic violence. But prosecutors did not file charges when the three alleged victims said they didn’t want to press the case further, Shyy said.

Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said Friday, “We were unable to charge the case due to insufficient evidence without the victims’ cooperation.”

Shyy said it appeared officers did their best to properly handle the calls from Natoma Street late Thursday and early Friday.

“The circumstances of the situation, there really wasn’t any more we could do,” he said.

The first two police calls, he said, did not include elements of a crime for police to act on — and it wasn’t until they were dispatched again that officers were able to arrest Young for public intoxication, he said.

“That comes with usually about a four-hour hold,” Shyy said. “He did not have any active warrants to our knowledge, which would have enabled us to book him on (another) charge.”

Henry K. Lee and Hamed Aleaziz are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com, haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee, @haleaziz