San Francisco prosecutors charged Shakia Vanderbilt with murder on Wednesday in the killing of Ulysses Tykee Davis, the Warfield Theatre security guard known to relatives and coworkers as Bear. The charge came after police said Vanderbilt was arrested on Tuesday, turning a fatal shooting that shocked the theater into a case now headed through the courts.
Davis, 47, was working security at the Warfield Theatre when police responded shortly after 1 a.m. on Saturday and found him suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. Officers rendered aid before paramedics took him to a hospital, where he died. For Davis’s wife, his children and the people who worked with him, the arrest did not erase what happened; it only put a name to the case now moving through San Francisco’s system.
Prosecutors said the charges include murder, an enhancement for personal use of a firearm, intentional discharge of a firearm in an occupied building and being a felon in possession of a firearm. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said there was a disruption inside the club before the suspect was brought outside at some point, and that a dispute led to the incident. She also said investigators believe video of the shooting exists.
That detail matters because investigators are still trying to sort out the most basic questions about the shooting. Jenkins said it appears Vanderbilt may have entered the Warfield with a firearm, but she also said authorities have not yet determined whether Davis was targeted. In a public venue, that gap is the difference between a deadly dispute and a broader security failure.
The shooting followed a Friday night 18-and-over event tied to the Zeus Network reality TV series Baddies USA. Mission Local previously reported that Warfield employees described a chaotic end to the event shortly before the shooting. Jenkins said the case remains active, and prosecutors now have to prove not just who fired the weapon, but how it got inside the theater and why Davis was the one who was shot.
