The high-rise shooting that changed San Francisco forever (July 1, 1993)
Dressed in a suit and suspenders, Gian Luigi Ferri looked like any other lawyer walking into 101 California Street. He went straight to the elevators and hit the button for the 34th floor. When he stepped out, the attack began.
Thirty years later, mass shooter events have tragically become commonplace in the United States. But in 1993, no one had seen anything like what Ferri did at 101 California. It’s still the deadliest mass shooting in the city’s history.
The law offices of Pettit & Martin were on the 34th floor. Ferri, armed with two TEC-9 handguns, a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun and a bag full of ammunition, started shooting indiscriminately into glass-walled conference rooms and offices. It was so shocking, so surreal that people froze in terror.
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Although his guns kept jamming, he had killed eight people in a matter of minutes. Along with Berman, Sposato and Scully, Shirley Mooser, 64, Allen Berk, 52, Mike Merrill, 48, Deborah Fogel, 33, and David Sutcliffe, 30, died in the attack.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/101-california-high-rise-shooting-changed-sf-18177976.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-CP-Spotlight
Today, security checks are standard at offices large and small, a fundamental shift that happened because of 101 California.
In the aftermath of the attack, San Francisco police and first responders came under heavy criticism for their slow reaction to a situation where every second counted. Some paramedics who rushed into the building were terrified of being shot themselves as armed plainclothes officers roamed the floors. The skyscraper’s concrete core interfered with police radio, making communication even more chaotic.
When police debriefed afterward, they realized they needed a better strategy for high-rise attacks. But 1993 was a different world: No other city had a plan either, because skyscraper attacks were practically unheard of. The San Francisco Police Department began running drills, including a miserable failure of an exercise inside the Schwab building. Officers fired so many shots that they ran out of ammo, and the person playing the part of Ferri was able to “kill” the sitting-duck cops. With the help of SWAT teams, SFPD changed the way it approached skyscraper shootings — clear the tower room by room instead of running in circles looking for a shooter. That, too, is standard protocol today.
Victims and their loved ones also pushed for legal change. In 1995, a judge ruled that victims’ family members were allowed to sue the gun manufacturer responsible for making the weapon used by Ferri. It was the first decision of its kind — the judge wrote in his ruling that he had no legal precedent to even consult.
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