Didn't see anything posted already about this news story.
Residential hotel AKA flophouse is the way it sounds to me.
If somebody tried that in my home town, he'd be mowed down by any number of CCW holders. But that's the difference between living in a disarmed victim zone as opposed to a place where citizens take personal responsibility for their safety.
But we have gun control in California that's even more strict than the rest of the country!
BUT BUT BUT...
/sarcasm
Here's the deal: If God doesn't destroy San Francisco pretty soon, He's going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.
wait shouldnt the title be gun hovers three feet off the ground all by itself and pulls its own trigger killing three ?
I get the feeling reading these forums sometimes that some frequenters are positioning themselves high on the mountaintop to point a big finger when the whole thing finally goes all to hell. (May they be so lucky for it to happen it their lifetime)
Some portion of this community is glad for this crime because it serves to confirm their suspicions. Another portion wonders with their scorecard how well God did for himself, and waits just to report the results.
I'm glad for y'all, I am please believe me, but don't be sanctimonious.
A San Francisco man described as "a ticking time bomb" fatally shot three men and critically wounded another Saturday afternoon before killing himself in his room after a bloody rampage in a Tenderloin hotel that sent terrified witnesses running through the streets.
Dozens of heavily armed police surrounded the Dalt Hotel on Turk Street and cordoned off the area before making a room-to-room search for the gunman, 53- year-old John Bravard.
The 5 p.m. shootings occurred several hours after the suspect jostled one of the victims in the hotel lobby.
"An argument resulted after someone bumped into him," said Sgt. Neville Gittens, police spokesman. "The next thing we know, he started shooting."
Homicide Inspector Lt. John Hennessey said the gunman fatally shot himself in his fourth-floor room. Bravard had a history of mental illness, Hennessey said, and hotel residents said he possessed a quick temper.
Dalt building manager Ruth Clarke said Bravard had an argument with tenant Paul Howard early in the afternoon. The two began arguing after they literally bumped into each other as Bravard was leaving.
Clarke said Bravard returned at 5 p.m. and immediately shot Louis Williams from the street as Williams stood at the entrance of the lobby. Bravard then entered the lobby and shot Howard, Joseph Garcia and Carlin Satterwhite, all tenants.
"He had no problem with Louis (Williams) and he never had a problem with Joseph (Garcia) but he just shot them," said Clarke.
Williams died at the scene and Satterwhite at the corner of Mason and Turk, said Clarke. Howard was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital, where he died. Garcia was transported to San Francisco General Hospital, where he underwent surgery and was listed in critical condition.
John Landas, 48, had just taken the elevator to the fifth floor when the shooting began. He heeded police orders and locked himself in his room. He later heard a thunderous blast from Bravard's room.
'THE FLOOR BOUNCED'
"When John killed himself, the floor bounced," said Landas. "It almost knocked me off my feet."
An 11-year resident of the Dalt, Landas said, "I've written many complaints about him but management just talked to him and they never processed it any further."
The sound of gunfire sent panicked hotel residents and others in the neighborhood running away from the Dalt, a 177-room residential hotel at 34 Turk St., where rooms rent for about $300 a month.
"I heard hella shots, a lotta shots, so I started running," said Muso Farrg,
who was getting into his car on Mason Street when the shooting started. "I was scared as hell. I got to Turk and Taylor and looked back and I saw a dude on the corner. He laid down and was bleeding from his mouth and then he stopped moving. I kept running."
David Bear was drinking a beer at the 21 Club at Taylor and Turk streets when the shooting started. He stepped outside to see what was happening and was pushed back by a horde of people running away.
"Everyone was panicked," he said. "You should have seen the looks on their faces."
More than 100 police officers and firefighters raced to the scene. As paramedics tended to the two wounded men, police armed with high-powered rifles took positions on rooftops and in alleyways as a SWAT team stormed the hotel to look for Bravard. Other officers closed Turk between Mason and Taylor streets and Mason between Turk and Eddy streets.
Bravard holed up in Room 446, where, residents said, he had lived for several years. At some point, he shot himself with a single bullet from the semiautomatic handgun he used in the attacks. A resident of the hotel, reached on her cell phone by a Chronicle reporter, cowered in the bathroom of her room one floor above Bravard.
"I heard a blast," the 46-year-old tenant whispered into the phone. "Oh, my God, am I gonna die?"
The woman said she befriended Bravard seven years ago when she moved into the Dalt. The relationship soured a few years ago, she said, after an argument over a mirror she was going to give him in exchange for a painting.
INTIMIDATED OTHERS
Residents said Bravard, known as "Big John," was a bit of a bully, a man who was quick to anger and often intimidated others at the hotel.
"He had a temper that would just explode without provocation," said Suzanne O'Hara, 60, who lived next door to him for many years before moving to the seventh floor of the Dalt. "He could be a gentle man when he wanted to be, but he could explode suddenly and you'd never know what happened."
O'Hara said Bravard once assaulted a security guard at the hotel and destroyed a television in the lobby. He also threatened her husband some years ago but backed down when she came after him with a knife.
Garrett Jenkins, who lives on the third floor of the Dalt, said: "Big John heard voices. He tried to pick fights with me and everyone else all the time. .
. . He was a ticking time bomb. He just lost it today. He probably shot them just because they were there."
However, friends of Bravard painted a radically different picture. They described him as a troubled but basically happy and friendly person who spent all day, every day, hanging out in the Power Vision video store on Market Street, helping customers for free, for the past 10 years.
He liked action movies, especially those starring Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson, and would watch them in the back room of the store.
"I don't care what they say. There wasn't any bad side to John," said a customer who'd only give his name as Herbert and collapsed on a pile of videos upon hearing Bravard was dead. "He always helped us. He was always clean. He rode his bike everywhere. He must have just snapped."
'ALWAYS MAD AT THEM'
Part-time store clerk Roger Storer said Bravard gave money to the homeless and collected televisions, stereos and model cars.
"As long as you treated him right, he was good," Storer said. "But at the Dalt, he said everyone wanted his stuff and treated him wrong. . . . He was always mad at them. Sometimes he'd say he was going to shoot someone, but you'd just go, 'Yeah, right.' I mean, everyone says that sometimes, right?"
At the Hotel Vincent, where victim Paul Howard was the graveyard shift desk clerk, residents and workers reeled as they learned of his death.
"Just look at this," said Leslie Molina, property supervisor, pointing to a Christmas party photo showing Howard beaming. "He was so high-spirited, liked to crack jokes, was just wonderful to everyone here."
His friends said Howard liked Spanish music, had worked three years at the Vincent, and regarded the hotel people as his family.
Jan and Mick Miller, visiting the city from Crescent City, were returning to the upscale Metropolis Hotel next to the Dalt when they saw the yellow police tape.
"This is it," Mick exclaimed. "I had brown hair when I started this vacation. Now it's white. People don't shoot up where we're from, and I've seen that for two days. They don't shoot each other either. I can't believe San Francisco."
Chronicle staff writers Patricia Yollin and Jaxon Vanderbeken contributed to this story. / E-mail the writers at
kfagan@sfchronicle.com., rkim@sfchronicle.com and
csquatriglia@sfchronicle.com. 
