A Neighborhood’s Grief, Questions

The place sold strong coffee and croissants, but customers in this city’s Bernal Heights area really went there for the good cheer dispensed by Anthony and Anna Shami--a couple they considered neighborhood fixtures, not just business owners.

For years until they recently sold the operation, the couple ran their Progressive Grounds coffee shop like a neighborhood living room--with a children’s play space and adjacent travel agency also run by the good-natured Anna Shami, 37.

But on Monday, customers fought back tears and grappled with the mysterious deaths over the weekend of four people believed to be the hard-working Palestinian couple and their two daughters.

In an incident San Francisco police describe as a multiple homicide, the bodies of four family members were found at 9:30 a.m. Sunday in a home about a mile from the coffee shop.

Homicide Lt. Judie Pursell said investigators have few leads and were not releasing the victims’ names until autopsies are completed. But property records show that the Shamis bought the red-tiled two-bedroom home four years ago. Friends say they had two daughters, ages 15 and 9.

Each victim was shot, but police would not say how many times nor would they describe the location of the wounds. But detectives confirmed that a gun was recovered at the residence Sunday.

“We are investigating this as a homicide,” said Pursell. She added, however, that officials had not ruled out a murder-suicide.

Neighborhood residents reported hearing the revving of motorcycles and the scream of car alarms Sunday morning before the bodies were discovered.

Pursell confirmed that the father, like Anthony Shami, had recently become associated with a local chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle group. But she said the group was not considered suspects.

“We’re not putting much credence to that motorcycle noise being key to this,” she said. “When relatives went to check on the family [and discovered the bodies], they had in their company two members of the Hells Angels.”

Pursell said detectives planned to interview members of the motorcycle group along with others who knew the victims. “At this point, there’s nothing to indicate anything, you know, shady,” she said.

“We’re not zeroing in on the Hells Angels. But as soon as that name is mentioned, everyone always gets worked up.”

Police said friends had described the father as a loving husband who would not hurt his wife or children.

Friends described the Shamis as the perfect couple.

They said the coffee shop was Anthony Shami’s gift to his wife. The 36-year-old worked long hours for an area beer distributor to help support what friends say was Anna Shami’s dream of owning her own business.

“He would work his job and then come to the shop to help out his wife,” said coffee shop regular Caitlin Morgan. “For everyone who knew them, it showed his love and dedication to her.”

On Monday, former customers created a memorial shrine of candles, flowers and sympathy cards outside Anna Shami’s Angelic Travel and Tours office. Before the couple sold the coffee shop earlier this year, the two businesses were attached, but the new coffee shop owners built a door between the two.

“Anna was a pioneer in this neighborhood,” Morgan said as she bought flowers for the memorial. “Before the couple opened up, we didn’t even have a coffee shop this neighborhood could call its own. But they changed that in a big way.”

Anna Shami regularly allowed artists and musicians to perform in her shop. “She was a fixture here,” said one woman between sobs. “We’re going to miss her.”

Taro Perez said he helped the couple open the shop six years ago. “Tony doted on his family.”

But Perez couldn’t understand why Shami began roaring around the neighborhood atop a Harley Davidson dressed in leather chaps with the Hells Angels logo. “It didn’t jibe with who he was,” he said.

Morgan said Shami told customers that he had recently purchased two pit bulls for his daughters’ protection. “But Anna laughed about it,” she said. “She said the dogs were sweethearts and wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

Neighbors in the quiet St. Mary’s Park community where the family lived recently began hearing the rumble of motorcycles outside the Shamis’ well-kept home.

The racket was one of several things they didn’t understand about Anthony Shami. Another was the tombstone sign outside the house that read, “Here lay the last owner whose dog [defecated] on my lawn. R.I.P.”

“That kind of spooked me, so I always crossed the street when I walked my dogs past there,” said neighbor Josie Beaumont. “I thought it was a joke, but then again, I also thought it was rather unfriendly.”

On Monday, a police car was posted outside the Shami family home as detectives ducked beneath a yellow police tape. Neighbors had left flowers on the lawn.

The couple’s daughters--Jasmine, 15, and Jamilah, 9--had both attended nearby St. Philip the Apostle Catholic School. Jasmine graduated two years ago and attended public school in Daly City.

Friends said they will miss the girls. “The older one was just in bloom, like a little flower,” said Perez. “When I saw her recently, she had blossomed into this young woman. Gosh, this is so sad.”