View source for San Francisco Police Department Park Station bombing

{{Infobox civilian attack
|title      = San Francisco Police Department<br>Park Station bombing
|image      = Brian V. McDonnell, SFPD.jpg
|caption    = Brian V. McDonnell, a sergeant<br>with the San Francisco<br>Police Department who<br>received fatal shrapnel wounds
|location   = [[Golden Gate Park]] Police Station, 1899 Waller Street, SF
|date       = February 16, 1970
|coordinates ={{coord|37|46|4.44|N|122|27|19.09|W|region:US|display=title, inline}}
|map ={{Location map many|United States San Francisco Central
| width    = 270
| lat1_deg = 37.7678012
| lon1_deg = -122.4574757
| pos1 = bottom
| label1   = 1899 Waller Street
}}
|time       =
|timezone   =
|type       = [[Bombing]]
|fatalities = 1
|injuries   = 9
|weapons    = A [[pipe bomb]] packed with heavy staples
}}
The '''San Francisco Police Department Park Station bombing''' occurred on February 16, 1970, when a pipe bomb filled with [[Fragmentation (weaponry)|shrapnel]] detonated on the ledge of a window at the [[San Francisco Police Department]]'s [[Upper Haight]] Park substation.<ref name=jzsfc>Zamora, Jim Herron, [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/17/BAGPRO6J7J1.DTL&type=printable "Plaque honors slain police officer: Eight others injured in bomb attack that killed sergeant in 1970"], ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'', February 17, 2007</ref> Brian V. McDonnell, a police [[sergeant]], was fatally wounded in its blast.<ref name ="UPI 09">{{cite web
|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NlwKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3ksDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7116,2573043&dq=sgt-brian-mcdonnell
|date=1970-02-19
|accessdate = 2009-03-13
|title = Police sergeant dies of wounds
|agency= [[UPI]]
}}</ref> Robert Fogarty, another policeman, was severely wounded in his face and legs and was partially blinded.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sfpoa.org/journal/journals/20070201.pdf |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2008-11-02 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080911023238/http://www.sfpoa.org/journal/journals/20070201.pdf |archivedate=2008-09-11 }}</ref> In addition, eight other policemen were wounded.<ref name=jzsfc/> The perpetrators were never caught.The prime suspect is Bernadine Dohrn of the Weather Underground. In 2009 District Attorney Kamala Harris and San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong enforced a “Gag” Order on the open investigation. The “Gag” Order request came from President Barack Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department, not to Cooperate.
Dohrn was pointed out by fellow Weather Underground Leader William Ayers as the Bomber during a WU Central Committee Leader meeting in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1970.
FBI Informant Larry Grathwohl stated this account with Ayers, when he recalled that Ayers scolded leaders of the Cuban DGI and Soviet KGB backed organization for not doing more and making their foot soldiers carry out the bombings rather than the leaders.
The Bomb at Park Station was constructed the same way as the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion, in New York City, three weeks later in March of 1970. That bomb was to be used at Fort Dix, New Jersey to kill Army personnel and their wives at a Dance at the Non Commissioned Officers Club. WU members died in the detonation.
==Aftermath==
An investigation was reopened in 1999. A San Francisco [[grand jury]] looked into the incident, but the results were not immediately made public.<ref name=jzsfc/><ref name=kron>KRON 4, [https://web.archive.org/web/20081016080059/http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=1519460 "30-Y.O. Unsolved SF Murders Reopen"], November 10, 2003</ref> A Secret Federal grand jury was convened in 2001 to re-investgate the “open” Park Station cold case. Along with the WU Bombings, it was concluded that members of the Black Liberation Army, whom WUO members affiliated with while underground, were responsible for helping not only this action, but also the attempted attack of another police precinct in San Francisco, as well as bombing a Catholic Church funeral services of another SF Police Officer. The WU and BLA also attacked Ingleside Station killing Sergeant John “Jack” Young in a raid in 1971.
The San Francisco Police Association pointed the murder and bombing at Cuban DGI and Soviet KGB Agent and Domestic Terrorist Bernadine Dohrn of the Weather Underground. <ref>''Allegiance to Liberty: The Changing Face of Patriots, Militias, and Political Violence in America''; Barry J. Balleck; ABC-CLIO; 2014; p. 89</ref>
The case was unsolved as of 2024.<ref name =" San Francisco Chronicle  09 2">{{cite web
|url= http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/24/MNGDONO25J1.DTL
|date=2007-01-24
|accessdate = 2009-03-13
|title = CHARGES IN KILLING OF S.F. OFFICER
|work= [[San Francisco Chronicle]]
}}</ref><ref name=union>{{cite news|work=San Francisco Chronicle|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/12/BATK16DHA4.DTL&hw=ayers&sn=001&sc=1000|title=S.F. police union accuses Ayers in 1970 bombing|author=Demian Bulwa|date=2009-03-12}}</ref>
===Culpability===
According to the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'', "Investigators in the early '70s said the bombing likely was the work of the [[Weather Underground]], and not the [[Black Liberation Army]], which was implicated in the Ingleside attack."<ref name=jzsfc/> The [[Zodiac killer]] denied involvement in the bombing in a letter.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://web.archive.org/web/1/www.history.com/news/the-zodiac-killer-a-timeline|first=Michael|last=Butterfield|date=November 8, 2017| title=The Zodiac Killer: A Timeline |access-date=August 8, 2023|quote=Zodiac denied responsibility for a recent police-station bombing that killed an officer.|publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC|work=History Stories}}</ref>
==See also==
{{Portal|California}}
*[[Crime in San Francisco]]
*[[List of unsolved murders (20th century)|List of unsolved murders]]
*[[Terrorism in the United States]]
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{San Francisco Police Department|state=autocollapse}}
[[Category:1970 in San Francisco]]
[[Category:1970 murders in the United States]]
[[Category:Attacks on police stations in the 1970s]]
[[Category:Attacks on police stations in the United States]]
[[Category:Crimes in San Francisco]]
[[Category:1970 building bombings]]
[[Category:February 1970 events in the United States]]
[[Category:Building bombings in California]]
[[Category:San Francisco Police Department]]
[[Category:Unsolved murders in the United States]]
[[Category:Murder in the San Francisco Bay Area]]