Early reports stated that 7 people were shot at the Castro Halloween bash last night. That number has now increased to 10.

The violence broke out on the 2200 block of Market Street, near Sullivan’s Funeral Chapel, around 10:40 p.m., as the annual street party was ending.

The gunfire erupted about 10 minutes after the techno music had ended and police had begun making announcements over a loudspeaker that it was time to leave.

Supervisor Bevan Dufty announced that police patrols have been stepped up in the Castro in an attempt to protect the neighborhood from a possible second attack from anyone seeking revenge.

One of the most seriously injured victims, said Dufty, was a woman who was grazed in the head by a bullet and may be bleeding internally. She is being treated at San Francisco General Hospital, but will not need surgery, he said.

Seven people — five men and two women, all in their late teens or early 20s — were transported to S.F. General, he said, and three others took themselves to hospitals.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom spoke to KGO radio this morning:

“It looks like it was a verbal dispute, younger folks threw a few things back and forth and then they pulled out their guns,” he told the radio station.

…snip…

Newsom would not say whether the event should be canceled, but said city officials need to “spend the next year making sure we plan this thing right.”

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