Friends and community members will honor 74-year-old musician Danielle Spillman, who was hit and killed by a car leaving a gas station last week. Authorities described a confrontation that escalated but prosecutors and defense attorneys presented sharply different accounts of what led to Spillman's death.
Monday, April 20, 2026 7:48PMFriends and community members are set to gather Monday for a vigil honoring 74-year-old Danielle Spillman, a lifelong musician who was killed after being hit by a car in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood last week.
A 30-year-old driver has been charged with murder in the case and remains in custody as the case moves forward."Very sweet. She always was supporting me, family and friends everyone," said Theresa Jenny Cabanag, a friend of Spillman's."She had jobs -- they were all odd jobs but in the end of the day, it was just her music," said Jenny-Lou Cabanag, another friend. Prosecutors and defense attorneys presented sharply different accounts of what led to Spillman's death during court proceedings last week. Authorities described a confrontation that escalated and was captured on surveillance video. "As the victim proceeds around the front of the vehicle, the defendant accelerates hitting the victim who ends up on the hood of the vehicle before falling in the roadway, and then is run over," said San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins."He panicked he tried to get his family to safety and he drove away. Tragically that person walked in front of the car, got onto the hood, fell off and was hurt in the collision," said defense attorney Seth Morris, adding that the driver was on his way to Disneyland with his family, including a baby.San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey acknowledged the impact of the case while cautioning against oversimplifying solutions."It's brutal. We have to do what we can, but we also we have to understand somethings -- like the crash here I don't think there is a single thing that we could've done in terms of designing a street safer or camera --- in fact there was a camera that caught and that wasn't a deterrent. We all have to do better," Dorsey said."Our main objective is just to tell her story and her character to be protrayed as it actually was -- a caring, giving loving person," said friend Derrick Guerra.Copyright © 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.
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