A shoplifting call at the Nob Hill Trader Joe's spiraled into a fatal street collision Friday morning when a gray Lexus struck and killed an adult male suspect and pinned one of two pursuing police officers beneath its front bumper on California Street near Hyde.

The incident — which the San Francisco Police Officers Association said escalated into "a violent struggle with the suspect in the middle of the street" — left one suspect dead and two officers hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators; the SFPD had not announced charges against them as of Friday. That the officers involved were a recruit and a field training officer adds a dimension of institutional accountability to an encounter that began as a routine property-crime call.

The morning started with a fire, not a theft.

At around 7:36 a.m. Friday, SFPD officers responded to a report of a white Tesla burning in the parking lot of the Trader Joe's at California and Hyde streets — before the store had opened for the day. When they arrived, they were told separately of a theft from the store. The SFPD later determined that the car fire and the shoplifting were unrelated.

A Trader Joe's employee then flagged down the two responding officers, who took up a foot pursuit of a suspect. The pair were a recruit and a field training officer, according to Louis Wong, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association.

"The scene escalated into a violent struggle with the suspect in the middle of the street," Wong said in a written statement.

San Francisco firefighters received a call at 7:43 a.m. reporting that individuals had been struck by a vehicle, with one pinned beneath it. They arrived to find one officer trapped under the front bumper of a gray Lexus; the second officer lay beside the vehicle. Firefighters worked alongside SFPD officers to extricate the trapped cop. Paramedics provided advanced life support to all three people at the scene.

The suspect — an adult male whose identity the SFPD had not released as of Friday — was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Both officers were taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Their injuries were described as non-life-threatening.

An anonymous witness told the SF Standard that the officers were chasing the suspect on foot from the Trader Joe's into the street when the eastbound Lexus struck all three.

The driver of the vehicle remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators, according to the SFPD. No charges against the driver had been announced as of Friday morning — a question that will be central to the department's ongoing investigation. Whether the collision was avoidable, and whether speed or inattention played a role, will likely be examined as part of standard SFPD collision protocols.

The Nob Hill Trader Joe's closed following the incident. An employee told the SF Standard the store was expected to reopen Saturday.

The episode underscores the unpredictable risks of street-level shoplifting responses, which have become more confrontational across San Francisco as the city debates the limits of retail theft enforcement. A recruit officer on a field training assignment found himself, within minutes of a routine call, in a street altercation that ended in a fatality.

SFPD did not immediately respond to questions about the status of the investigation into the driver or the circumstances of the collision.