Crackdown at Candlestick–Raider Rivalry on Hold

The San Francisco 49ers said Monday that they want a halt to the team’s annual preseason matchup against the Oakland Raiders after a violence-marred exhibition game at Candlestick Park in which two fans were shot, one was beaten into unconsciousness, 12 were arrested and dozens more ejected.

The team reacted to Saturday night’s alcohol-fueled mayhem by cutting the hours the stadium parking lot will be open before games, eliminating tailgating altogether after the kickoff and promising to punish season-ticket holders who sell their seats to troublemakers. Police said they would set up drunken-driving checkpoints around Candlestick and vigorously enforce laws against open alcohol containers on city streets.

“The degenerate behavior that happened on Saturday is not going to be tolerated,” Jed York, the 49ers’ president and chief executive officer, said at a news conference. {snip}

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“There is a small segment of both teams’ fans that when they get together, it is not a good environment,” York said afterward. “You see this in a preseason game where a lot of the people aren’t even fans. One of the clips on YouTube was a guy in a Niners jersey and a guy in a Raiders jersey beating up a guy in a Niners jersey. It was just people who aren’t football fans who were here fighting.”

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Police Chief Greg Suhr said the department had dispatched 40 percent more officers to the Raiders contest than are on hand for a regular-season game, even though the crowd was only two-thirds the normal size. He declined to give exact totals.

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There were 90 calls for medical service, compared with the normal seven to 10, Suhr said. The arrest total of 12 was about 10 more than average.

All three of the most seriously injured victims of Saturday’s violence were in fair condition Monday. The victims–a 26-year-old San Rafael man who was beaten unconscious in a men’s restroom, a 25-year-old man who was shot several times in the abdomen after the game in the parking lot and another man shot in the leg in the parking lot during the game–are being treated at San Francisco General Hospital.

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Some of the incidents handled by San Francisco police at Saturday night’s game at Candlestick Park between the 49ers and Raiders:

6:10 p.m.: Officers responded to a fight in lower-deck Section 13 involving two suspected gang members. One man was arrested on suspicion of battery after allegedly punching a bystander who tried to break up the fight.

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8 p.m.: Officers responding to reports of a man with a gun in the RV section of the stadium parking lot found a man who had been shot in the leg and grazed in the face by bullets. He was taken to San Francisco General, where he was in fair condition. No one has been arrested.

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9 p.m.: A man with several gunshot wounds to his torso appeared at Gate A of the parking lot. He told officers that he had driven his car for several minutes after being shot before stopping for help. He was taken to San Francisco General, where he was in fair condition Monday. No one has been arrested.

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