A San Francisco resident booked on suspicion of the homicide of an SF State student was released from jail Tuesday, according to the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department.
The door handle of the apartment where Stephen Guillermo was shot and killed Saturday, May 3. Photo by Jessica Christian / Xpress
Amisi Sudi Kachepa, 68, surrendered to police after he allegedly shot and killed Stephen Guillermo, 26, early Saturday morning when the student entered a third-floor unit, two floors beneath his own apartment on the 900 block of Mission Street, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
“After what his brother called a night of hard partying with friends, he came back to his apartment building on Saturday morning,” his cousin Emil Guillermo wrote on an education website. “Right building, wrong apartment.”
While Kachepa was arrested in connection to the shooting of Guillermo, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office has not yet filed charges and the shooting remains under investigation.
Xpress reached out to the district attorney’s office but they did not respond by press time.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Kachepa told other residents of the apartment building that Guillermo broke the knob off of his door.
SFPD officers discovered Guillermo, who was scheduled to graduate at the end of this semester with an international relations degree, dead inside his neighbor’s apartment around 1:40 a.m, according to SFPD.
Officers immediately arrested Kachepa and booked him on a homicide charge at San Francisco County Jail, according to SFPD Officer Gordon Shyy.
“Kachepa will have a defense if he can show that he ‘reasonably’ thought that he was in peril of imminent death or great bodily injury (due to Guillermos’ entry),” said Jeffrey Snipes, department chair of criminal justice studies at SF State, in an email.
Snipes said that the “castle doctrine” or the “defense of habitation” of California’s Penal Code, which justify the use of deadly force inside one’s own residence, could be relevant in the criminal case.
“No matter what life throws at him he kept his smile on all the time,” said Sownai Saetern, who knew Guillermo since middle school. “He is always inviting people to go out to have fun, to laugh, and to enjoy all the little things in life.”
Guillermo immigrated to San Francisco from the Philippines in the mid-1990s, according to Emil. After his father’s death around four years ago, he worked two jobs to support his mother and younger siblings.
“The SF State community is saddened to hear of the sudden loss of Stephen Guillermo,” said Mary Ann Begley, associate dean of students. “Our thoughts and compassion go out to Stephen’s family and friends during this difficult time.”
Members of the Guillermo family declined to comment on the incident.
A memorial fund has been set up in Guillermo’s name. Donations will contribute to a memorial service and can be made here.
Additional reporting provided by Chris Sanchez and Jennie Butler.
