Accused drug dealer threatened strip club rivals with gun while out on bail, feds say
A felon accused of threatening rivals with a gun outside a San Francisco strip club will appear in federal court today after cops linked his firearm to a shooting that left a father of two paralyzed.
Prosecutors say Masaiyah Sharp, 23, drew a silver and black pistol on February 13 2026 outside the New Century Theatre on Larkin Street.
Sharp pointed the gun at two men after getting into a shoving match outside the club, then turned the weapon on a security guard manning the door.
When he was arrested five days later he was found with a loaded pistol, matching the description of the strip club weapon, along with heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana.
He was on bail at the time of the incident, having been arrested two weeks earlier for drug dealing in San Francisco.
“The defendant demonstrated his callous disregard for others when he pulled out a pistol, racked the slide and pointed it recklessly at several individuals,” wrote assistant U.S. attorney Sara Henderson in a detention memorandum submitted to the court.
“Throughout the incident, an older woman pushing a young special needs woman in a wheelchair waited, moved away from the defendant, and still got caught in the melee.”
“Under any circumstances this conduct is deplorable, but to add insult to injury, the defendant was on pretrial release for selling narcotics to an undercover officer when he did this.”
Sharp’s gun is forensically linked to an October 2025 shooting outside a city hotel that left a man paralyzed, cops say. Giovanni Banks, 19, was arrested on March 15 and faces a battery of charges including attempted murder.
Sharp has pleaded not guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of ammunition – a charge commonly leveled by federal prosecutors in ‘ghost gun’ cases where they cannot prove the firearm traveled between states.
He will appear this morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge Alex Tse, who earlier ordered that Sharp be assessed for release to a halfway house.
Prosecutors have indicated that, if he is ordered released, they intend to immediately appeal.
The case continues.
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