S.F. community reels after killing in front of kids

A police car is seen parked near a new basketball court as balloons tied to a fence at a new basketball court at Herz playground are seen at a memorial for outreach counselor Allen Calloway on Monday, June 30, 2014 in San Francisco, Calif. Outreach counselor Allen Calloway was shot and killed while playing dodgeball with children on a new basketball court at Herz playground on June 27, 2014. less A police car is seen parked near a new basketball court as balloons tied to a fence at a new basketball court at Herz playground are seen at a memorial for outreach counselor Allen Calloway on Monday, June 30, ... more Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close S.F. community reels after killing in front of kids 1 / 10 Back to Gallery

(06-30) 15:32 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco community was in shock Monday after a former gang member working to turn his life around was shot and killed in broad daylight at a park in front of nearly 60 children.

Around 2 p.m. Friday, 32-year-old Allen Calloway was leading a group of kids, including his 10-year-old son, in a game of dodgeball on a basketball court at Herz playground in the Visitacion Valley neighborhood.

As Calloway played with the children, an unidentified man walked up and shot him multiple times. He was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, police said.

"This is a high red alert," said a program manager for Together United Recommitted Forever, or T.U.R.F., for which Calloway worked as a part-time outreach worker. He asked not to be named. "Shooting in front of kids is something that has gone way too far."

Calloway was working for the group's summer program at the park, where dozens of children gathered to play and enjoy the warm weather. Calloway had volunteered for the past 2 1/2 years, program officials said, and would often arrive for his shift early to play with the kids.

Herz Park sits a few blocks from the Sunnydale public housing complex - an impoverished, dilapidated area plagued by high crime. The park was recently equipped with a new baseball field and basketball court, and has a neighborhood meeting center with arts and crafts.

"Once you're in a development everyone wants to be tough. Up here you get to be kids," another program manager said. "This is something you would never prepare for."

Grief counselors from the city Department of Public Health were at several neighborhood locations Monday helping children, parents and members of the community try to make sense of the devastating violence still reverberating through the neighborhood.

"We're fighting back tears," said LaVaughn King, who has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years. "The children witnessed something like that and it will affect them for the rest of their lives."

"This is the quietest these streets have been in the summertime," said Romonica Grayson, president of the Sunnydale tenants association. "Sunnydale has had a lot of trauma, but this is the worst-case scenario."

Calloway had been identified as a gang member by the San Francisco City Attorney's Office in a 2010 civil injunction that alleged he had a history of gun possession and marijuana dealing. In a 2012 interview with The Chronicle, however, he said his days of being in a gang were behind him.

On Monday, police were stepping up efforts to make their presence felt in the neighborhood. Officers were stationed near the basketball court where the shooting happened and planned to stick around.

"This is just unacceptable. I know the community is upset, and I'm upset," said Capt. Tim Falvey, who heads the police force's Ingleside Station. "It was a shocking crime and I hope people that were shocked come forward" as witnesses.

Falvey said police were working to develop a long-term strategy to devote more resources to the Sunnydale neighborhood. They hoped to identify a suspect in the killing to bring some sense of closure to residents.

"We want to make it a safe place for kids to play," he said.