Jun 24, 2008

Friends mourn killing of man, son

Draeger's manager shot dead in S.F. drive-by; surviving son in critical condition

By Aaron Kinney / Bay Area News Group

Employees at Draeger's grocery store in San Mateo went about their jobs with heavy hearts Monday, having learned that the market's longtime night manager, Anthony Bologna, had been shot and killed Sunday in San Francisco along with one of his sons.

Store director Keith Myers said Monday that he was saddened and "numb" at the news. Myers had worked alongside Bologna for roughly a dozen years.

"Tony was a fantastic guy, a fantastic worker, one of the backbones of the store and it was a terrible, terrible loss," Keith Myers said Monday afternoon.

San Francisco police reported that a man and his two sons were driving in the Excelsior District at about 3 p.m. Sunday when one or more suspects in a nearby vehicle opened fire, killing the father and one son and critically wounding the other son.

The San Francisco Medical Examiner had not released the identity of the victims as of late Monday afternoon. The son who survived the shooting was in a San Francisco hospital Monday battling "life-threatening injuries," according to San Francisco police Sgt. Wilfred Williams.

Williams said no one has been arrested in connection with the shooting, which remains under investigation. He said investigators are trying to piece together what precipitated the slaying. It appears there was "some type of altercation," he said.

"We don't want to say necessarily that it was road rage but something had occurred prior to the incident," Williams said. "Exactly what occurred remains under investigation. Whatever it was, it was a cowardly and senseless act on the part of the suspect or suspects."

Myers said Bologna had been with Draeger's for about 12 years. His duties as night manager included ordering products, erecting displays, rotating items on the shelves and general upkeep.

Bologna was a hard worker who never called in sick, Myers recalled. In his free time, he was an avid San Francisco 49ers fan and family man.

Myers said Richard Draeger, one of the owners of Draeger's Markets, which has four Bay Area locations, has offered to donate the food for Bologna's memorial service. A call Monday to Bologna's home in San Francisco in an attempt to reach family members was not returned.

Police are looking for between one and three Hispanic males with close-cropped hair who were traveling in a newer model Chrysler 300M. The vehicle was either grayish-blue or grayish-green in color and had tinted windows and chrome rims, Sgt. Williams said.

Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to call the San Francisco Police Department's homicide detail at 415-553-1145 or the anonymous tip line at 415-575-4444.