San Francisco will name a street in Bernal Heights in honor of Sean Monterrosa, the 22-year-old resident who was gunned down in a Walgreens parking lot by Vallejo police in 2020.
“Sean Monterrosa Boulevard” will soon be the new name for Park Street where it intersects with Holly Park, where Monterrosa grew up. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved the resolution for the new commemorative name on Tuesday this week.
Monterrosa was heavily involved in social-justice work before he was shot dead on June 2, 2020, amid nationwide protests against the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A San Francisco native, he participated in various community organizations, like 7 Teepees, Horizons Unlimited, and the Excelsior Boys and Girls Club. His last text message to his sisters before his death asked them to sign a petition to demand justice for Floyd.
“It was really important for our family to create these physical beacons where we can honor Sean,” said Michelle Monterrosa, Sean’s sister, who has taken up advocacy work with her other sister, Ashley, since their brother was killed. The Monterrosa siblings grew up on that street, and went to school at Junipero Serra Elementary School, which sits at that corner.
Monterrosa was at the site of an alleged burglary at a Vallejo Walgreens when police officers arrived at the scene. Others fled, but Monterrosa fell to his knees and faced an oncoming squad car, with a hammer protruding from his waistband. Officer Jarrett Tonn, sitting in the back seat of the patrol car, fired his gun repeatedly through the windshield, striking and killing Monterrosa.
In the months after, Vallejo police were accused of destroying evidence in the case, including replacing the squad car’s windshield before the department could investigate it. Files on the drone that captured footage of the incident were reportedly overwritten with zeros.
This is not the first commemoration for Monterrosa in San Francisco. In 2021, the city named the anniversary of his death, June 2, as Sean Israel Monterrosa Day; the Sean Monterrosa Knowledge Up Community Library, with bilingual books about social justice, also sits at the same Holly Park intersection where his street will be. In November, a mural in his honor on 24th Street and South Van Ness Avenue was unveiled at Día de los Muertos.
Michelle Monterrosa said she expects the street sign to be unveiled later in April, around what would have been Sean’s 26th birthday.
“Although Sean wasn’t killed here in San Francisco, we recognize that it’s just this is a step, and also a blueprint for other families … To not be afraid to build a partnership with our Board of Supervisors, to not be afraid to organize, to galvanize community,” Michelle Monterrosa said.
Despite attention to the case and his family’s advocacy, however, Monterrosa’s family feel they have not gotten justice. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who took over the investigation from Vallejo authorities, ultimately declined to bring criminal charges against Tonn in December 2023, more than three years after the shooting. And Tonn’s termination was overturned in an arbitration case last August.
The Monterrosa sisters said their advocacy work remains unfinished, regardless of the setbacks; they will continue to honor their brother’s legacy and work to educate the community.
“Although the top cop, or whatever, didn’t do, essentially, what they should have done, doesn’t mean that we allow that allow that to disrupt us,” said Michelle Monterrosa. “We just pivot, right?”
The community library in his honor by Holly Park is really nice. Glad Sean is being remembered and loved. 💔
Looting and rioting and this thing gets a street named after him? WHAT A SICK CITY San Francisco is, no wonder much of it is closing down, because it’s neither safe or sane anymore.
How about a memorial for the late Kate Steinle? If there ever was
an innocent victim, it was she.
Interesting to see hoe that’s going to play out. Wherever this goes, they better get all residents to agree.
No one deserves to be killed for looting. That being said, if you’re going to be out late at night, after an enforced curfew, while running away from police, and while also holding a suspicious weapon in your sweatshirt –you’re taking a big risk with your life.
Monterrosa had a criminal history of “shoplifting, petty theft, illegal weapons violations, assault with a deadly weapon, shooting into an inhabited dwelling, carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle, possession of narcotics for sale and attempted murder,” according to the LA Times (June 3, 2020). He was shot while participating in looting a Walgreens. Other than the fact that he has been turned into a martyr (like Hillary’s murderer Nano), why is the city naming a street for him?
The whole thing was a tragedy, and Sean seemed like a good guy, but renaming a street in San Francisco after a kid who go shot while looting a Walgreens is peak crazy. Keep it classy San Francisco.
This is a slap in the face of law abiding citizens.