San Francisco Declares 24-Hour Ceasefire Amid 250% Homicide Surge

On the steps of City Hall Thursday morning, San Francisco's top law enforcement officials joined violence prevention advocates and high school students under a single urgent message: stop the killing. The gathering launched a 24-hour citywide ceasefire that ran all day and night Friday, organized under the rallying theme "Silence Is Violence."

The numbers driving the effort were alarming. The city recorded 14 homicides in 2026 compared with just four at the same point in 2025, a surge of more than 250% year over year. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins did not soften the assessment. "We were at four homicides last year at this time; we are at 14 in San Francisco," she said. "This is a crisis point."

Mayor Daniel Lurie, Police Chief Derrick Lew, and Sheriff Paul Miyamoto joined Jenkins on the steps, along with several supervisors and representatives from community organizations. The ceasefire was organized in partnership with United Playaz, the longtime San Francisco violence prevention nonprofit whose founder and executive director, Rudy Corpuz Jr., has spent more than three decades working with the city's youth.

At the Thursday kickoff event, Corpuz held his cellphone to a microphone, patching in a voice crackling in from Solano State Prison. Demetrius Dixon, who has served a life sentence since 1993 for a murder he committed at age 18, addressed the crowd. "We must be proactive, we must speak up," Dixon said.

Toni Bedford, sister of Keenan Erwin, who survived being shot by a classmate at Philip and Sala Burton High School in early December, also spoke. "As a big sister and as a leader, we have purpose, and the purpose is to push for peace," she said.

Jenkins broadened her call beyond City Hall. "It takes us as leaders, as community members, elected officials, school staff and employees, educators, you name it, coming together to signal to our young people, youth and young adults, that this is not the way," she said. "This is not the answer."

Corpuz framed the ceasefire as a potential model for the broader region. "If we're successful in San Francisco, then maybe we could do Oakland, then we could do Richmond, and we could do Vallejo," he said, setting his sights on a Northern California-wide effort.

The initiative faced an immediate test. Hours after the City Hall announcement, a shooting in the Mission district left one person with life-threatening injuries Thursday evening.

Police Chief Lew has noted that while the homicide total is sharply elevated, the raw number of shootings in the first quarter did not rise as dramatically; gunshot wounds are simply proving more likely to be fatal. He also said arrests have been made in nearly every homicide case recorded so far this year.

Mayor Lurie kept his message plain. "I believe when we come together, there's a safer San Francisco for everyone," he said.