Breaking News: Terrorist Attack in San Francisco

The Religion of Pieces Strikes Again!

Up To 14 Hurt In SF Hit-and-Run Spree 7 Critical

As many as 14 people were injured this afternoon by a motorist who drove around San Francisco running them down before he was arrested, authorities said.

Seven of those injured were in critical condition, police and firefighters said.

Authorities have identified the man who was arrested as Omeed Aziz Popal, who has addresses in Ceres (Stanislaus County) and Fremont.

Authorities said they believe Popal was the same driver who ran over and killed a 55-year-old man walking in a bicycle lane in Fremont, at Fremont Boulevard near Ferry Lane, just after noon. That crash scene is just blocks from Popal's Fremont address, where he had most recently been living.

Hmmm... Omeed Aziz Popal. Nope, I'm guessing not a pissed off Lutheran. Nice Episcopal boy maybe? Nada. I googled the names and they appear to be Afghani in origin. The odd thing is, San Francisco is on his side, why run them down? Salt Lake City or San Antonio would make a lot more sense.

--- U P D A T E: 08/29/2006 9:52PM ET ---

Doing his best ostrich impression, Mayor Gavin Newsom said of the hit and run rampage in SF today: "These are the things, these are so senseless. They're utterly inexplicable. They're impossible to rationalize..."

--- U P D A T E: 08/30/2006 10:18AM ET ---

Michelle Malkin has excellent updates on this attack, including this little gem:

The SUV struck two people in front of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco on California Street, a few blocks from where the rampage ended. Blood covered the sidewalk in front of the center's gift store entrance, and 50 feet farther down the sidewalk lay a mangled bicycle. Security cameras in front of the center captured images of the incident, which happened at 1:12 p.m., according to Aaron Rosenthal, spokesman for the community center.

This incident is soundling less and less "inexplicable" isn't it Mayor Newsom?

--- R E L A T E D ---

A reader writes:

Omeed is presumably an Afghan (Pashtu?) form of Ahmed.

People Finder shows a related name (probably same address) for one Najibullah Popal. Both Popals are shown as having addresses in Hayward.

One Najibullah Popal was at one time curator of a museum in Kabul. Popal seems to be a common Afghan name. (Najibullah was also the name of the Soviet-era Afghan ruler.)

Wikipedia states that Fremont has the largest number of Afghans of any city in the U.S.

In Arabic spelling, Najibullah is the same as Najib-Allah.