‘We pray the victim comes out of this okay and has a speedy recovery,’ says brother of alleged shooter, who lived above victim’s dispensary
Cheasarack Chong has been identified by the San Francisco Medical Examiner as the suspect who was killed by police following a Monday standoff after Chong allegedly shot dispensary owner Martin Olive. His family says he had struggled with mental illness for years.
Chong, a 34-year-old Fresno native, was the son of Cambodian war refugees. He is survived by his three brothers and two sisters, who lost contact with him over eight years ago.
“He left home years ago for a better life in San Francisco,” said one brother, Tee Chong.
In 2017, a bulletin asking for information about Cheasarack Chong was posted to a Missing & Homeless Facebook group. “He could be very vulnerable on the streets,” the post says.
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In an attached photo of Chong in middle school, he wears a light blue collared shirt and wire-rim glasses. According to the post, he left home with his bike, a suitcase, and a cross-body backpack.
He was registered as living at 81 Ninth St., Apt. 608, a unit above the Vapor Room Dispensary that Olive owns. The Vapor Room does not have any record of Chong ever being a customer.
Regarding the broad daylight and apparently unprovoked shooting, Tee Chong said: “I don’t know what made him do what he did but I’m heartbroken, and the rest of my family is as well. We pray the victim comes out of this okay and has a speedy recovery.”
Olive was in intensive care after being after being shot multiple times and wounded in his lungs and face, longtime friend Jason Grace wrote on a GoFundMe page on Wednesday. Some of the bullet fragments, Grace wrote, are too risky to remove.
Olive will stay in the hospital for at least another week as the blood loss, swelling, and stitches all over his body are treated. Still, “he remains in good spirits, even earning a reputation as the hospital’s most popular patient,” Grace added.
After shooting Olive, the suspect entered a nearby building and refused to surrender to police. Officers called Cheasarack Chong’s family during the standoff, requesting them to record a message asking the shooter to give himself up, Tee Chong said. It was unsuccessful.
Police fired less-lethal projectiles at windows in the building where Chong was holed up and also deployed gas. Mission Local is told that Chong was armed with two pistols and a rifle and fired at police with both a pistol and a rifle before being fatally shot.
As of Tuesday evening, Tee Chong said he had not heard from the police again: “During negotiation we were in the dark with how serious the situation was and [the police department] didn’t want to disclose anything prior.” If the family had had more information, he continued, they might have been able to talk to him.
“What he did wasn’t right at all,” Tee Chong said. “I don’t know what got him to that breaking point.”
In 2018, Cheasarack Chong was acquitted of attempted murder charges. He had stabbed one of his attackers in self-defense after being beaten and robbed on his way to work, according to his public defenders.
After this 2018 incident, Tee Chong said it was his understanding that the county “took care” of his brother. The family thought he had been doing well and working hard, “until this moment.” He acknowledged that while they didn’t know Cheasarack Chong’s motives, “it looks like he still needed help.”
Tee Chong stressed the importance of mental health awareness: “He wasn’t always that way, he was just depressed for a long time.”
“All he wanted was a better life and to free himself,” he added. “I’m saddened that SFPD didn’t let us talk him out of it and to get him help.”
This is a breaking news story that will be updated as more information becomes available.
Additional reporting by Joe Eskenazi.
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ABIGAIL VÂN NEELY
Originally from New York City, Abigail is a recent graduate of Stanford’s Journalism Master’s program. She’s interested in community, inequity, and accountability stories, and enjoys foggy mornings with her tuxedo cat, Sally Carrera. (Yes, the shelter did in fact name the cat after the Porsche from the animated movie Cars.)More by Abigail Vân Neely
