Murder Suspect in San Francisco Belonged to Notorious 'Smash and Grab' Retail Theft Ganghttps://pjmedia.com/rick-moran/2026/10/08/murder-suspect-in-sawn-francisco-belonged-to-notorious-smash-and-grab-retail-theft-gang-n4958097A family in San Francisco is grieving today. Ulysses Tykee Davis, a 47-year-old security guard known to friends, his wife, and his six children as “Bear,” was shot in the back in a chaotic scene at the Warwick Hotel, where a reality TV show was filming. Davis's wife and two of his children witnessed the shooting.
Shakia Vanderbilt, a member of a notorious "smash and grab" retail theft ring known as "The Rainbow Crew," was arrested and charged with homicide, discharging a firearm into an occupied building, and possessing a firearm as a felon, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told the San Francisco Chronicle.
In the 2010s, Vanderbilt was a member of what was first called "The Rainbow Girls." They were doing smash-and-grab robberies at high-end retail stores before the practice became national news. Authorities claim the crew stole more than $1 million worth of goods.
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Vanderbilt was arrested in 2014 for an alleged theft at a TJ Maxx store in Daly City, where she stabbed a security guard on her way out of the door. "She was also arrested along with other crew members in 2017 following an hours-long chase in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties that stemmed from a robbery earlier that day in Los Angeles, and the suspects were found with $15,000 worth of stolen property in their vehicle," notes SFist.
SFist reported in 2016 that "16 members of the crew had been charged in San Francisco in connection with 23 retail thefts totaling around $200,000."
Vanderbilt never went to prison. Her criminal cases are still "pending."
The articles about this that I saw placed the shooting at The Warfield theater, which is about 4 1/2 blocks from the Warwick Hotel.
Had San Mateo County (Daly City) or Los Angeles County bothered to prosecute this female's many thefts, she might not have been on SF streets killing this father of 6.