Taybor Pepper — a long snapper for the 49ers — has had to turn off replies to a Ricky Pearsall-related post on X after being subjected to hate in the messages.
Pepper, 30, took to X on Sunday after learning that Pearsall was in serious but stable condition following a gunshot to the chest, stemming from a street robbery in San Francisco on Saturday.
‘Glad to hear Ricky is stable,’ Pepper posted, celebrating his teammate’s condition following the terrifying ordeal.
However, some social media users did not share Pepper’s empathy and support for the wide receiver as many replied to the post with disgusting and hurtful messages, forcing the snapper to mute the responses.
‘Cannot believe I had to mute replies to my last tweet,’ Pepper later added in reference to social media users flooding his initial post on the rookie wideout with abusive replies.
‘Why? Never liked the draft pick anyway who cares,’ one social media shockingly wrote in an extremely insensitive reply about Pearsall.
‘Are you still [a] liberal piece of s***?’ another replied to Pepper’s initial X post.
‘Democrat,’ another user pointed out, referring to Pepper.
‘Should be a wake up call to vote RED,’ a person emphasized to Pepper. ‘Everyone knows liberal policies have destroyed many communities across California and the nation.’
‘F that,’ one user posted in yet another disgusting reply. ‘Time to restore law and order.’
Pepper had previously bashed the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) for a convention with Donald Trump this year, branding it ‘painful to watch.’
He also took aim at the Pat McAfee Show for its lack of research on women’s boxing over the Olympic gender row on X.
It appears the NFL player was targeted by Republican-leaning users for his liberal viewpoints online, despite them not relating to Pearsall and his safety.
Pepper, who played in 17 games last season, will surely get the nod as the 49ers’ first long snapping option when the team takes on the New York Jets at home on September 9. He signed with San Francisco in 2020 after going undrafted in 2016.
Pepper played for Michigan State in college (2012-15).
Pearsall, who was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in April’s NFL Draft, was shot in the chest during an attempted robbery in San Francisco’s Union Square Saturday.
The 17-year-old suspect is believed to have targeted Pearsall for his Rolex, rather than his status as an NFL player. They were arrested at the scene and are now in custody.
Authorities say the attempted robbery backfired when the 17-year-old suspect took a bullet from his own gun during his struggle with Pearsall, who refused to surrender.
Video of 49ers draft pick Ricky Pearsall walking to ambulance after police say he was shot near Union Square. Video from witness. @KTVU pic.twitter.com/luhulILUQ7
— Zak Sos (@ZakSNews) September 1, 2024
The suspect was wounded in the hand or arm and is in stable condition at San Francisco General Hospital as he awaits pending charges, police said. Pearsall was wounded in the chest and is in serious-but-stable condition at the same facility.
Police released a statement late Saturday night describing the incident.
‘On August 31, 2024, at approximately 3:37 p.m., San Francisco Police officers responded to the area of Geary Street and Grant Avenue on a report of a shooting,’ read the statement provided to DailyMail.com. ‘Upon arrival, officers located two male subjects suffering from injuries. Officers rendered aid and medics transported both subjects to a local hospital for further medical evaluation.
‘During the preliminary investigation, officers learned one of the subjects attempted to rob the victim, San Francisco 49ers player Ricky Pearsall. During the attempted robbery, a physical altercation ensued, and both the suspect and victim were injured. The suspect is in custody and charges are pending at this time.’
Mayor London Breed called the shooting a ‘terrible and rare incident in Union Square.’
Breed referred to the incident as a ‘setback’ for an area that has seen crime drop in 2024.
‘The data goes out the window sometimes when something happens like this,’ Breed said, as quoted by the Chronicle.
San Francisco has been plagued by shootings for years, although Breed boasted in April that violent crime was down 14 percent compared with the same time frame in 2023. Specifically, gun violence was down 38 percent over the first quarter of 2024, according to City Hall.
Violent crime had skyrocketed in San Francisco during the pandemic, with 56 and 48 homicides in 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Chronicle reporters saw five shell casings at the scene, where Pearsall had reportedly been shopping moments earlier.
One witness told the Chronicle that Pearsall had blood streaming down his left arm.
‘It was a scary situation,’ the witness, who asked not to be identified, told the Chronicle.
Pearsall was actually seen walking away from Saturday’s shooting.
As seen in a video shared on X by KTVU’s Zak Sos, the wounded Pearsall was led by emergency responders to a waiting ambulance, where he was placed on a stretcher. Pearsall was moving slowly during the footage, which was shot from the opposite side of the street. He did not appear to be overly distressed but was covering his chest area.
KGO-TV’s Dion Lim reported that Pearsall was signing autographs at Cow Palace before going downtown to Union Square for some shopping. Lim’s sources say he was at a high-end designer store moments before being shot.
