'Ethnic violence'

BY RICHARD BYRNE REILLY
Of The Examiner Staff

Police arrested three men in the August slaying of Andre Banks amid increasing racial tension between blacks and Samoans in the Sunnydale projects.

Prosecutor Jim Hammer announced the arrests at a press conference at the Hall of Justice on Tuesday morning.

Taken into custody were Maomao Galuega, Jason Faletusi and Joey F, who though 17 will be charged as an adult, Hammer said.

A fourth man, Faataupi "Frank" Fua, was already in police custody.

Hammer's spokesman, Mark McNamara, said Banks was beaten and gunned down Aug. 24. Banks was dead on arrival at San Francisco General Hospital less than an hour later.

A string of gang rapes and home invasions in early August unnerved the neighborhood, and there was speculation the killing was in retaliation for the rapes, cops said. Two Sunnydale residents are in custody in connection with the crimes and cops are still searching for a third suspect.

"There's been a good deal of ethnic violence in that project and it's something that needs to be dealt with," McNamara said.

McNamara said authorities think Fua was the triggerman in Banks' slaying.

"It is believed that Fua delivered the coup de grace," McNamara said, adding that authorities have not ruled out charging the suspects with hate crimes.

The three are to be arraigned at the Hall of Justice at 9 a.m. today.

Fua, cops said, will likely claim in his defense that he shot Banks because he thought Banks was armed and was about to open fire on him. Police said Banks was unarmed at the time he was killed. Banks' three friends who were with him during the melee escaped.

McNamara said the four suspects approached Banks and his friends because they thought the men were hassling two women who sat in a car. Words were exchanged between the men before a chase ensued. Banks' three friends escaped on foot, but Banks "wasn't fast enough," McNamara said.

The arrests come on the heels of a well-publicized string of arrests by local cops in high-profile murder and mayhem cases San Francisco Police Chief Earl Sanders says illustrate his resolve to crack down on criminals running amok in The City.



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Yea that shit is becomin pretty serious......My cuzin use 2 stay out in da SunnyDale region......40 somethin gang-related murders just in that lil region which is like 2 project buildings and less than 10 streets......It's krayzie......

This black v.s samoan thing is going on in Carson too......Where them Boo-Yaa Tribe Pirus stay at......

those Samoans are some big ass mofos..i wouldn't want to fuck with them..thats fo sho...

yah tha Samoanz is wild. They coo peepz tho. Down hea, e'rybody stay shermed out....so u think them big muhafuckaz iz sumthin tah deal wit now...wait till yah see em when they wet thenna muhafucka. lol Avoid them shermheadz...