Golden Dragon massacre

The Golden Dragon massacre was a gang-related shooting attack that took place on September 4, 1977, inside the Golden Dragon Restaurant at 822 Washington Street in Chinatown, San Francisco, California. The five perpetrators, members of the Joe Boys, a Chinese youth gang, were attempting to kill leaders of the Wah Ching, a rival Chinatown gang. The attack left five people dead and 11 others injured, none of whom were gang members. Seven perpetrators were later convicted and sentenced in connection with the murders. The massacre led to the establishment of the San Francisco Police Department's Asian Gang Task Force, credited with ending gang-related violence in Chinatown by 1983. The restaurant itself closed in 2006.

The incident was motivated by a longstanding feud between two rival Chinatown gangs, the Joe Boys and Wah Ching, traced back to 1969, when the first victim was killed. The two gangs controlled different parts of San Francisco, with the Wah Ching in Chinatown and the Joe Boys in the Richmond and Sunset districts, and had been rivals since the Joe Boys splintered off from the Wah Ching in the late 1960s. The shooting at the Golden Dragon was an attempted assassination of Wah Ching leaders, and was a direct retaliation for the shootout with the Wah Ching in Chinatown's Ping Yuen housing project on July 4, 1977 which was sparked by a dispute over fireworks sales. That shootout resulted in the death of 16-year-old Felix Huey and the wounding of Melvin Yu, both members of the Joe Boys.

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