Ann Mannix’s close friend says the retired San Francisco deputy chief was radiant about her impending divorce just two weeks before her husband killed her, their daughter, and himself.
Marie Hurabiell, a local attorney and community activist, told The Post that she attended a party with Mannix, 65, two weeks ago and found her aglow about the split from Kevin Mannix, 68, a retired police sergeant. Hurabiell said the retired deputy chief was openly embracing the next chapter of her life after years in a troubled marriage.
“She was in a great place, she did tell me she was getting divorced, and it was the best thing and she was looking forward to the future,” Hurabiell said.
Hurabiell said she did not know Kevin well but understood the relationship had been deteriorating for some time. She described him as a possessive ex-husband who resisted letting his wife move on.
“She told me, as she was getting divorced, that she was so happy.”
The deadly shooting erupted Sunday evening at the family’s home on Strawberry Circle in Strawberry, an affluent unincorporated community east of Mill Valley in Marin County. Sheriff’s deputies received a report of gunfire at 5:03 p.m. And arrived within minutes, according to the sheriff’s office. They contacted a caller who had escaped the home safely, secured the perimeter, and entered to find three people dead inside. Authorities have identified the deceased as Ann, her daughter Katie, 24, and Kevin.
Detectives continued processing the scene Sunday night. “There is no known threat to the community,” the sheriff’s office said.
The killings have sent shockwaves through the San Francisco Police Department, where Ann had built a pioneering career and Kevin had served 27 years before retiring in June 2018. Ann joined the department in the 1980s, when women remained relatively scarce in its ranks, and shattered multiple glass ceilings. She became the first woman to join the department’s SWAT team and later the first woman to lead it. She rose to deputy chief of the Field Operations Bureau in 2018 and took charge of the Special Operations Bureau the following year before retiring in 2021.
Retired San Francisco police captain Alexa O’Brien, who worked alongside both Ann and Kevin, said Kevin’s mild-mannered demeanor gave no hint of the violence to come.
“He was very, I don’t know how to say it, but vanilla,” O’Brien said. “They were an interesting couple. She had to be like six inches taller than him, and he was little.”
O’Brien said Ann’s commanding presence overshadowed her husband’s reserved nature throughout their marriage.
“If anybody was to look at a tough person, you’d look at Ann as the tough one. That’s just how I viewed them,” she said.
O’Brien emphasized that Kevin’s temperament seemed entirely unremarkable during their professional interactions.
“He’s not a Type A personality kind of guy,” she said. “When he would talk to us police officers, or if I took a class and he spoke in the class, there wasn’t anything that would strike me or give me any indication he would ever do this.”
“He had a good, easy temperament,” she added.
Ann’s childhood friend, who had known her since they were five years old growing up across the street from each other in San Francisco’s Richmond District, was equally stunned.
“I can’t imagine having that happen or doing that. So it caught me by surprise,” she said.
The two women had remained inseparable for more than six decades, speaking about twice a week even after moving to different states. Ann had visited her friend over the summer, and they spent the time swimming, dining out, and simply being together.
“We were best friends. We were playmates. We learned everything together,” the friend recalled.
She described Ann as super athletic, funny, civic-minded, and consistently outdoing her in childhood competitions. Above all, she remembered her as a devoted mother who had been eagerly anticipating becoming a grandmother.
“She was a wonderful mother. She had high hopes of being a grandmother soon,” the friend said. “You know, she was a friend to everybody.”
Katie, who was studying to become a nurse, shared her mother’s drive to help others. “Katie was fun, silly, the life of the party,” the friend recalled.
In a farewell letter published by Taraval Station in July 2018 after his retirement, Kevin had struck a nostalgic tone about his career and his hopes for more family time. “I leave the SFPD, but I am taking your friendships with me forever,” he wrote.
San Francisco Police Chief Derrick Lew notified department personnel of the deaths Sunday night, writing that he was sharing the devastating news “with heavy hearts.”
“Please keep their family in your prayers. BSU is available to all members who may need it during this difficult time,” Lew wrote, referring to the behavioral science unit.
The San Francisco Police Officers Association issued a statement mourning the family. “The tragic loss of retired Deputy Chief Ann Mannix, her daughter Katie, and retired Sergeant Kevin Mannix in a suspected murder-suicide has left our entire SFPD family reeling,” the union said.
The department has faced other suicide tragedies in recent years. Officer Chris Morris, 40, died by suicide in 2022 while under criminal investigation, and officer Rene Vig Nielsen also took his life in 2024. “This is heartbreaking news. Suicide, in all its devastating forms, has tragically become woven into the fabric of SFPD,” one former SF cop told The Post.
Hurabiell remembered Ann as “warm, funny” and a “phenomenal” leader who had dedicated her retirement to educating the community on police work and public safety causes.
The Marin County Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate the circumstances of the shooting.