Local
Potrero Hill teen was killed minutes after leaving home, mother says
Rolando Jose Dusuau, known as RJ, was 17 and preparing to graduate from George Washington High School when he was fatally shot in Potrero Hill on Oct. 16. His mother remembers him as a funny, driven young person who hoped to help other youth.
Rolando Jose Dusuau had been gone from home for only minutes when he was shot and killed in Potrero Hill, his mother said. The 17-year-old, known to friends and family as RJ, was found with gunshot wounds on the 1100 block of Wisconsin Street on the evening of Oct. 16, less than a mile from his home.
Police and paramedics responded, but Dusuau died at the scene, according to the San Francisco Police Department. The department’s initial statement identified him as an adult man, his family said. A teenager was arrested the following day in connection with the killing; authorities have not publicly named him because of his age.
Dusuau’s mother, Christina Onopa, said she grew worried when her son did not answer her calls and texts after leaving home Friday evening to meet someone she believed was a friend. When he still had not returned by Saturday morning, she reported him missing. She learned late that night that he had been killed.
“Something didn’t sit right with me,” Onopa said. “He wouldn’t just take off like this.” She said she does not know who would have wanted to hurt her son and believes he may have left with someone he knew and trusted.
Dusuau was a student at George Washington High School and expected to graduate next year. He was working toward getting his driver’s license and training to become a youth counselor at Horizons, a San Francisco nonprofit serving Latino youth and other young people of color.
“He was very smart, he was driven, he was funny,” Onopa said. Messages poured in after his death, she said, with people telling her how Dusuau had helped them through difficult times. “He was a good person. He always wanted to help.”
Onopa said her son loved basketball and video games. He had experienced major loss before: His father died by suicide three years ago, when Dusuau was 14. Onopa, a single mother raising two younger sons, has started a fundraiser to help cover funeral costs.
The shooting was the second fatal shooting this year at the Potrero Hill Terrace and Annex public housing complex, which borders the block where Dusuau was found. In February, 44-year-old Cornelius Wigfall Jr. was killed and a child was wounded in a shooting as they sat in a parked car. The complex is undergoing redevelopment into a mixed-income neighborhood.
“We don’t know who and we don’t know why,” Onopa said. “We just miss him a lot. I feel empty.”