Police release photo of auto-burglary suspects' getaway car involved in hit-and-run

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KTVU) - Police in San Francisco have released photos of two auto-burglary suspects' getaway car involved in a hit-and-run at the Legion of Honor.

The photo of the silver, four-door BMW was released on Wednesday. 

On Tuesday, the suspects mowed down a man outside of San Francisco's Legion of Honor. The man who was struck in the hit-and-run by the BMW was taking photos of the suspects in the act of burglarizing vehicles, including his own. 

Police said around 4 p.m., the suspects pulled into the parking lot on 34th Avenue and burglarized a black Ford Mustang convertible, shattering the driver's side window.%INLINE%  

The victim, a visitor from Oregon who was with his son and the Mustang's owner, was across the parking lot when he saw the two suspects breaking into the Mustang, so he started taking their photographs.

The two suspects then moved to a second vehicle, a Toyota RAV 4, and started burglarizing that vehicle. 

As the victim continued to snap photos, the suspects noticed they were being photographed and got back into their car and ran the man over, authorities said. %INLINE%

Police said witnesses saw the suspects run into the victim with their car. The force of the impact flipped the man up onto the top of the windshield before he was thrown some 20-feet before hitting the pavement. 

By chance an SF Muni bus driver on Balboa Ave. saw the suspects speed by.  

"The victim was a victim of the car burglary. [He] was attempting to take photos of the suspects at which time the suspect vehicle struck the victim, causing severe injuries," said Sgt. Eric Mahoney with San Francisco Police Department. "The suspect vehicle drove in front of the bus, so we were able to get video from that bus showing the suspect vehicle fleeing." 

Police and paramedics found the man on the ground bleeding from the head. 

The victim was taken to San Francisco General Hospital where as of early Wednesday evening, he remains in stable condition with a broken collar bone and a severe brain injury, police said. 

"He looked pretty badly shaken up, so they were bandaging him up and put him on a stretcher board and took him away like that," said Harry Miskin a tourist who witnessed part of the incident. 

Officials only gave a vague description of the two suspects as men wearing gray hooded sweatshirts and that they were driving a silver four-door BMW with tinted windows. Police said the car should have significant damage to the windshield from where it struck the pedestrian. 

Police took photos and dusted the two vehicles that were burglarized for fingerprints. 

Miskin and his wife, a Bay Area native, had stopped at the museum on their way from Napa. After worrying about the injured man, they found out they too were victims. 

"It was only when we got back to the car that we realized we had been broken into," Miskin said. 

The thieves had stolen their duffle bags, mostly clothes, but also some sentimental items that cannot be replaced. 

"My wife was a bit shaken up by it. I mean this is the third time that she's had her car broken into in San Francisco," Miskin said. 

The suspects are still at large. Police are reviewing surveillance tape and the victim's camera to identify them. %INLINE%