News Archive

Email A Friend

More News

April 15, 2024
Colorado Worker Shows Head Injury Happened as a Consequence of a Knock on the Head at Work

April 4, 2024
Callfornia Division of Workers' Compensation Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee Meeting Scheduled for April 17, 2024

April 3, 2024
California Division of Workers' Compensation Posts Adjustments to Official Medical Fee Schedule (DMEPOS)

April 2, 2024
California Division of Workers' Compensation Posts Adjustments to Official Medical Fee Schedule for Pathology and Clinical Laboratory

The San Francisco Housing Authority agreed to pay a $500,000 workers’ compensation settlement in a case involving a shooting death of an employee tending the grounds of a city project. The decision was made July 17.

A juvenile (not named because of his age) in what appears to be a gang-motivated murder is charged with shooting 23-year-old Maurice Davis midday Jan. 13, while working an overtime shift at the Sunnydale project in Visitacion Valley. Davis, a four-year employee for the housing authority, had only worked at Sunnydale for a week and a half when the shooting went down.

Davis lived with his girlfriend and daughter at the Double Rock projects. Not a gang member himself, Davis had reportedly felt threatened and anxious with his new assignment due to existing gang rivalries between Sunnydale and Double Rock.

His supervisors claimed they weren’t aware of any problems since Davis had been recently transferred from the Potrero Hill projects. Davis reportedly thought expressing his concerns to his bosses wouldn’t change anything, but had made it clear to his family and friends that he needed the job regardless of the threatening environment.

Davis’ 1-year-old daughter will receive payments of nearly $500 a week until she is 18. With interest, the amount is estimated to reach $525,000.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Housing Authority spokesman Mike Roetzger called the violence a tragedy not only for the Davis family but the agency's many other employees. But, he said, this was a "pretty isolated incident" for the city's 50 public housing sites, divided about equally between family residences and senior citizen units.

Roetzger said there had been no deaths of other workers in at least the past three years.

He said the housing authority maintains a staff of private security guards at night and on weekends in San Francisco's largest four family projects, including Sunnydale, and pointed out that the shooting took place near a police substation.