A 17-year-old suspect in the shooting of San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall has been charged with attempted murder and two other felonies, officials announced Tuesday.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement that the suspect will be arraigned Wednesday afternoon and because of the public safety risk, prosecutors will look to have him held in custody.
The teen is also being charged with assault with a semiautomatic weapon and attempted second-degree robbery in the incident, which occurred Saturday afternoon in the city’s Union Square area.
Police say Pearsall, 23, was walking to his car when the suspect noticed his ‘expensive watch,’ San Francisco Police Sgt. Frank Harrell told the San Francisco Chronicle.
During a struggle, the suspect’s gun went off, shooting Pearsall through the chest and wounding the suspect’s arm.
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The teen, from Tracy, California – approximately 60 miles east of San Francisco – was arrested about a block from the scene, police said.
Pearsall was taken to the hospital and was released on Sunday. The 49ers put the rookie wide receiver from Florida on the non-football injury list on Monday to allow him to recover from the gunshot wound and a shoulder injury that had limited him in training camp, team GM John Lynch said Tuesday.
Lynch added that it ‘was nothing short of miraculous’ that Pearsall wasn’t hurt worse.
He credited police Sgt. Joelle Harrell for quickly responding and keeping Pearsall calm, using his shirt to put pressure on the chest wound and using her baseball cap to press against the bullet’s exit wound.
‘He’s doing so much better today than he was yesterday,’ Lynch said. ‘Just really, really miraculous.’
Lynch said the Niners still expect Pearsall, the 31st overall pick in this year’s draft, to be able to contribute to the team this season.
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