San Francisco Store Owner Shot 7 Times Including Through the Cheek After Thinking It Was a ‘Stupid TikTok Prank’

Mar. 15, 2025

Martin Olive of San Francisco.Photo:martinolive/Instagram

martinolive/Instagram

A San Francisco man is now on the road to recovery after he was shot seven times outside of his business last month.

Martin Olive, 47, is “grateful to still be here,” he told ABC affiliateKABC, just weeks after a stranger repeatedly shot him outside of his Vapor Room smoke shop on Jan. 27.

“I want to do some good work, and I want to keep helping people,” Olive told KABC. “To keep a perspective. That this life is valuable, and I have been grateful enough to be given another chance and to find the joy and to find ways to be content with things, and proud of my life and happy for my life.”

Martin Olive.martinolive/Instagram

Olive told the outlet, andThe San Francisco Standard, that his injuries include a bullet wound above his collar, two in his back, a split ear, fractured jaw, fractured shoulder, several cheek stitches, nerve damage, a lung injury and about five cracked ribs.

In what he thought was “the beginning of a stupid TikTok prank” involving a water gun, Olive remembered trying to run after the first gunshot but not going anywhere. “It felt like I got a ball of hot metal shoved into my cheek,” he toldThe Standard.

“It just was so hot, and I just wanted to get away from the pain. I think, metaphysically, my soul was running away from my body. I was in another world.”

“I kept thinking to myself, ‘I can’t believe I’m gonna die on Ninth Street,’ like, holy s—, I’m dying on Ninth Street,” he told theStandard.

While there were moments where Olive was “fading out” on his journey to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, he credits EMTs with saving his life, per KABC.

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San Francisco Police Department vehicle photographed in August 2024.Smith Collection/Gado/Getty

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty

“Officers made entry and located the suspect who was suffering from life-threatening injuries,” the SFPD said in a news release. “Officers and paramedics rendered aid on scene. Despite the lifesaving efforts of first responders, the suspect was pronounced deceased.”

PerCBS News, investigators reportedly found three handguns, one loaded rifle, multiple magazines, five bullet casings, and a bulletproof vest inside Chong’s apartment.The Standardnotes that Chong previously faced charges, including attempted murder, before he was acquitted when a jury found him not guilty of attempted murder and was hung on an assault charge after he allegedly stabbed a man in what the public defender’s office argued was an act of self defense.

Olive’s goal now is to reopen his store “bigger, better, stronger and more awesome, with the help of the community,” he told theStandard.

“I think I’m very lucky within unlucky circumstances,” Olive told the outlet. “I’m not a tough guy. I just want to be a squishy, soft dude… I’m just a guy that was standing there and got shot.”

“This isn’t Martin’s first fight to survive — he survived a brain aneurysm in the past,” Grace added. “Clearly the world wants him here, and so do we. If you can donate anything, we’re raising funds to support Martin’s recovery and the hurdles he’ll face ahead, from medical bills to rebuilding his life.”

Olive has since sharedupdates to Instagram, telling friends in a caption that after he spent six nights in the hospital, he’s expected to make a “mostly full recovery.”

“I wanna thank you all, seriously, for the love and support and smiles you’ve all shared with me. It’s kept me going. Thank you,” he wrote.

“… Also, I’m doing okay and beyond blessed so feel free to donate to charity that helps with gun violence or helps nurses who are terribly underpaid for their hard work.”

source: people.com