Police drone tracks suspects after pepper-sprayed victim loses gold chain

Gold chains can disappear in seconds on a busy city block, and this one was taken after a pepper-spray attack on the 1300 block of 7th Avenue in the Inner Sunset. San Francisco police say the victim was robbed around 11:09 a.m. on April 29, then left without the chain as officers moved in on a purple Dodge Challenger tied to a string of auto burglaries.

What makes visible gold jewelry such an easy target is the speed of the grab. In this case, the suspects did not need long. Police said a subject wearing a black ski mask got out near a school, ran back toward the car while being chased by an unknown person, and the Dodge Challenger sped off on 7th Avenue and Judah Avenue. A gold chain, carried in the open and easy to identify once stolen, gave investigators something concrete to follow.

The Citywide Plainclothes Team and a Drone as a First Responder unit then kept the vehicle in view as it moved to the 2900 block of 24th Street in the Mission District. Police said a passenger walked into a nearby jewelry store and handed a gold chain to an employee. Officers detained the passenger, and the chain matched the one stolen from the victim. The driver was arrested at 24th Street and Florida Street.

Investigators identified the suspects as 18-year-old Husani Derrell Cooks and a juvenile female. Both were arrested on suspicion of robbery, conspiracy and possession of stolen merchandise. The gold chain was recovered and returned, and the case remains open and active under SFPD case number 260-237-362.

The arrest also shows why San Francisco has leaned so hard into drones and real-time surveillance. Police opened the Real Time Investigation Center in December 2025 at 315 Montgomery St., and NBC Bay Area reported that it had helped assist in more than 800 arrests since starting last year. City officials say crime is down about 25% this year, while ABC7 has reported that the department now has 80 drones in service.

That kind of rapid tracking can change the outcome when a robbery crew tries to swap hands, switch cars or offload stolen jewelry before officers arrive. It is a meaningful shift in recovery and follow-up, but not a cure-all. The same tools that help police find a stolen chain and the people carrying it also feed the privacy concerns critics have raised as San Francisco expands public surveillance.