1 dead, 4 injured in San Francisco hit-and-run after dispute, police say

SAN FRANCISCO -- Five people have been struck by a van in San Francisco in a hit-and-run incident, police say. One victim has since died, according to a hospital spokesman. CBS San Francisco reports that police spokeswoman Giselle Linnane said the incident happened at around 10:24 a.m. local time in the city's Dogpatch neighborhood.

The driver of a vehicle got into a physical altercation with five people and struck all five with his car, Linnane said.

One victim was in critical condition, two others in serious condition and one in fair condition, according to Brent Andrew of the San Francisco General Hospital. He didn't get into the details of the nature of their injuries.

A witness who chose to remain anonymous said it was a dispute between a driver of a van and four or five people on the street which led to the driver getting out of his van and chasing after the people with an ax or a hatchet. The witness said the people were able to disarm the man and chase him back to his van, where he then got back in the vehicle and drove onto the sidewalk and into the group at high speed.

"The guy in the van got out of the van to pick up something on the ground and these guys sort of said, 'What are you doing?' And it was sort of a playful exchange, then the guy in the van got in their face and started yelling at them and they started yelling back. And there some sort of turf discussions like, 'This is my turf,' and whatever. So it's just a crazy person. The guys on the street were sort of just messing around and then it got escalated and then all of sudden I think one of them is dead," the witness told CBS San Francisco.

"The white van circled around -- there was an altercation happening between this guy in the van and the four victims ... I saw somebody with a hatchet or small ax, and then other guys took out a belt. There was then a scuffle between them at which point I was already thinking about calling 911, I was on the phone with 911 and then he ran the four of them over. And then he continued down the sidewalk towards my general direction at which point I stayed on the phone with 911 and he drove off," another witness said.

You can watch the interview with the witness in the video below:

Officials held a press briefing to say it was an isolated incident and that the public is not at risk.

The driver fled the scene and the five male victims were rushed to the hospital, with at least one of them in life-threatening condition, police spokesman Officer Robert Rueca said. It was that victim who later died. Earlier police had indicated four of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries.

The witness described the driver as dark Hispanic or light African American in his late 30s to early 50s with a scruffy beard, matted hair and a plaid shirt. It appeared to the witness the man was living out of his van, described as a white GMC with a partial license plate number 165.

The Associated Press reports the crash happened in an industrial neighborhood along the waterfront a few miles from the city's financial district.

Paul Lim, who works nearby, told the San Francisco Chronicle a distraught bystander ran into the business asking for items to help stop the victims' bleeding. Lim added that one person was being attended by a friend crying out for help, while another person was moving slowly.

One of the witnesses claimed that prior to the incident, the van driver had also yelled at him and threw something at him after the witness had parked his car on the street. The driver also had made a threatening motion towards the witness.

"I've never really noticed him before. I park here from time to time, so I just happened to be too close to his car maybe. He threw something at me, then hit me, then circled back around extensively to threaten me. At which point he stopped to pick back up whatever he threw at me, and that's when the altercation ensued," he said. "I'm still definitely in shock. The police arrived within minutes, all four men were taken off in ambulances. One of the guys looked like potentially a broken back. Three of them didn't move until paramedics arrived."

The driver's name is Mark Dennis, CBS News' Jamie Yuccas reports, and police arrested him shortly after the incident.

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