The family of a Los Angeles insurance executive who was shot and killed on the streets of San Francisco last year by a hotel security guard says the shooter has been on the run from police for 13 months, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.
Ryan Pincus, 37, was killed in the early morning hours of Aug. 4, 2023, as he walked back to the Marriott Hotel where he was staying in San Francisco’s Union Square neighborhood. His family is suing the security guard’s employer, Universal Protection Service. The guard is not a defendant in the suit.
Pincus had attended a Giants game earlier that night and then had dinner with friends, according to the lawsuit filed by his family in San Francisco Superior Court. But before he could return to his hotel, he was accosted by a Universal Protection Service guard who worked for another hotel at Mason and Eddy streets.
“Over a period of approximately three and a half minutes, without provocation or justification, [the security guard] He verbally and then physically attacked Ryan. [The security guard] “The man escalated the confrontation from verbal to physical and ultimately ended his attack on Ryan by pulling out his gun and fatally shooting him,” attorney Blair Kittle wrote in the complaint.
The lawsuit names the alleged shooter who worked for the security firm, but The Times is not naming him because he has not been charged in the case.
According to the complaint, the shooter “fled the scene and has not been seen since despite efforts by SFPD and other law enforcement to locate him.” Police told Pincus’ father, Steven Pincus, that the shooter was on the loose, Kittle said.
The family filed a lawsuit Thursday against Universal Protection Service for wrongful death and negligent hiring, among other claims.
“We cannot live in a world where security guards shoot and kill unsuspecting bystanders,” Kittle said in a statement. “Companies that equip, train, supervise and manage security guards must be held to the highest standards of safety and accountability.”
