Remorseful Teen Charged in Shooting of 49ers Rookie Ricky Pearsall

The high school senior charged with the attempt­ed mur­der of San Fran­cis­co 49ers play­er Ricky Pearsall is “very sor­ry” after alleged­ly shoot­ing the rook­ie receiv­er, the teen’s attor­ney said after his arraign­ment in juve­nile court.

Teenager’s Remorse and Legal Proceedings

Bob Dun­lap, the 17-year-old’s pub­lic defend­er, told reporters that his client has expressed remorse over the Sat­ur­day shoot­ing in San Fran­cis­co’s Union Square. “He is gen­uine­ly very sor­ry that this did hap­pen, as is his fam­i­ly,” Dun­lap said.

The teen is fac­ing charges of attempt­ed mur­der, assault with a semi-auto­mat­ic firearm, and attempt­ed robbery. 

Despite a rec­om­men­da­tion from the boy’s pro­ba­tion offi­cer to trans­fer him to his home coun­ty of San Joaquin, where he has anoth­er mat­ter pend­ing, a judge ordered him to remain in cus­tody in San Francisco.

Details of the Shooting Incident

Pearsall, a first-round draft pick for the 49ers, was shot in the chest dur­ing a botched rob­bery attempt. The rook­ie fought off the rob­bery, but one bul­let struck him, and anoth­er hit the sus­pect when the gun went off dur­ing the struggle.

“Ricky was­n’t hav­ing any of it,” San Fran­cis­co Super­vi­sor Aaron Peskin said cops told him of the NFL play­er’s deter­mi­na­tion to fight off the robbery.

The 17-year-old was quick­ly arrest­ed as he tried to flee the busy street on foot. Pearsall was list­ed in “seri­ous but sta­ble con­di­tion” and has been placed on the reserve/non-foot­ball injury list, expect­ed to miss the first four games of the season.

Victim’s Family Response

Pearsal­l’s moth­er, Erin, shared in a Face­book post that he was “shot in the chest, and it exit­ed out his back,” miss­ing his vital organs. “He is extreme­ly lucky,” she said.

The 23-year-old rook­ie had been shop­ping and sign­ing auto­graphs in Union Square pri­or to the shoot­ing incident.