Man robbed, killed at San Francisco’s Twin Peaks viewpoint

SAN FRANCISCO – Following the robbery and killing of a 71-year-old photographer, police have beefed up patrols at San Francisco’s Twin Peaks viewpoint, where two men were killed last year.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday that (http://bit.ly/2u4Acr1 ) Edward French was found with a gunshot wound near his vehicle in the parking lot Sunday morning.

French was approached by a young man and a woman before he was shot and his camera was stolen, police spokesman Robert Rueca said. French was a photographer and worked as a location scout for films and other productions.

A jogger was the first to hear the gunshot and found French lying in the lot bleeding, police said. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

The fatal shooting comes a few weeks after three people were robbed of a camera, lens and phones at the viewpoint, which draws thousands of tourists every year.

In February 2016, two men were killed and another was wounded at the lookout.

It’s also not the first time thieves have gone after people with camera equipment in the region. Police in various San Francisco Bay Area jurisdictions say there have been more than a dozen brazen robberies of television news crews and still photographers since 2012.

Police are not keeping an official record of the regional crimes, but The Associated Press tallied at least five robberies in 2012, two in 2013, three in 2014 and three in 2015.

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This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of the victim’s name, Edward French.