No Suspects in Fulton St. Shooting

By Andrew Sywak

Flower bouquets and letters of remembrance still adorn a streetlight pole near the intersection of Fulton Street and 17th Avenue where San Francisco resident Dmitry Romasenko, 21, was shot to death Nov. 15.

No arrests have been made for the Saturday night shooting that occurred just as the suit-and-tie clad Romasenko was set to get into a car to depart to a party at a Russian restaurant in Burlingame with two friends.

According to witnesses, a gunman jumped out of some bushes at the edge of Golden Gate Park and fired five shots into the Ukranian-born Romasenko, who died shortly thereafter.

The SF Police Department's homicide detail was not available as of presstime for comment about potential suspects.

According to Sasha, 23, who did not want to be identified, the gunman possibly may have been somebody he had gotten in a fight with in the past or somebody who had felt insulted by Romasenko.

Sasha said she has been a friend of Romasenko's since middle school. She dismissed the idea that there was any kind of gang involvement in the slaying.

"He was very nice. There was never a time that he wouldn't get the car door for me," Sasha said. "He was the kind of man, where if something happened, he would always be there and do something about it."

Though his mother lives in the Richmond District, Romasenko had been staying with a friend who lived near the site of the shooting. He had been recording a hip-hop CD with the help of other Bay Area rappers. Known as "Chuck the Beast," he had almost finished all of the work for his album.

Romasenko had reportedly been involved with gangs in high school but was able to graduate from Wallenberg High School after his mother sent him to a boot camp in Arizona. After high school, he learned computer skills at a trade school and went to work as a quality insurance engineer before getting laid off.

"He was definitely a spiritual person," said Mattie Pil, the wife of the rabbi at the synagogue Romasenko was involved with.

"I listened to one of his rap songs and he was mentioning God, and that's not something you hear in a lot of rap songs." Pil said Romasenko would sometimes put on a tsillin and pray with her husband at the synagogue.

Romasenko, who was considering traveling back to the Ukraine to see his father, was buried in Colma at a widely-attended service.

The United Schneerson Synagogue on Geary Boulevard has started a campaign to solicit donations to sponsor a library on its premises in Romasenko's honor. For more information or to make a book donation, call Rabbi Pil at 386-8523.