Morning Splash: SFPD Says Bayview Suspect May Have Shot Himself; BART Civic Center Shooting Video; New Suspects in Stow Case; Debt Limit

After five days of heat over the fatal shooting of a fleeing suspect in the Bayview, San Francisco police on Thursday let loose a bombshell - the young man not only had a gun, officials said, but appears to have killed himself with it. The bullet that killed 19-year-old Kenneth Wade Harding on Saturday came from a .380-caliber firearm, authorities announced, and a round of the same caliber was recovered from Harding's jacket pocket.

BART officials have released footage from a security camera that partially captured a transit officer's July 3 killing of Charles Blair Hill, a 45-year-old transient who allegedly advanced on two officers with a knife at San Francisco's Civic Center station. The video shows the officer who fired three times at Hill, but never shows Hill, who is some distance away and out of the frame.

President Barack Obama and the Republican House speaker, John Boehner, once again struggled against resistance from their respective parties Thursday as they tried to shape a sweeping deficit-reduction agreement that could avert a government default in less than two weeks... If it could be sold to Congress, the plan could clear the way for a vote to increase the federal debt ceiling before the Aug. 2 deadline. But the initial reaction to the still-unfinished proposal hardly suggested a quick resolution.

State Treasurer Bill Lockyer will try to borrow about $5 billion for a brief period later this month to prepare for a possible federal disruption, his office said Thursday. Lockyer had originally planned to borrow the same amount of money later this year to ensure that California has enough cash to pay its bills. But his office believes that absent a federal deal to raise the debt ceiling, the state could suffer from a "cash flow disruption and market turmoil" that would leave it unable to cover all operating costs.

Documents released Thursday by federal investigators probing the San Bruno explosion contained new revelations about flawed PG&E pipe welds and a retired engineer's sharp critique about how the fatally flawed gas line segment was put together. Included in the 4,000 pages of documents released by the National Transportation Safety Board was a report that a 10-inch long segment of pipe, about 719 feet south of the portion that exploded last year in San Bruno, had "various weld discontinuities."

A former Pacific Gas and Electric Co. record-keeping manager told federal investigators that a top PG&E official recently acknowledged to him that the utility had likely tossed some of its missing pipeline records, according to a transcript of his interview released Thursday. "If they couldn't identify what it was, it probably just got s- canned," the pipeline engineering official reportedly told the manager-turned-whistle-blower, Larry Medina, during a June 27 interview regarding last year's catastrophic natural gas pipeline blast in San Bruno.

Los Angeles police Thursday arrested two men in connection with the brutal beating of a San Francisco Giants fan at Dodger Stadium and have concluded that the suspect they took into custody in May was not involved in the attack, law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation said. Police officials refused to publicly release details about the dramatic turn of events in the case, which has attracted international attention and placed city and Dodger officials under intense pressure to reassure fans it is safe to attend games at the storied venue in Chavez Ravine.

San Francisco police arrested dozens of protesters Thursday evening following a demonstration in front of the Grand Hyatt Union Square. The union representing the hotel's workers organized the protest, one of eight demonstrations against the chain across the nation. A UNITE HERE Local 2 press release said the events sought to “end the abuses” faced by Hyatt workers, including the replacement of long-term employees with lower-paid temporary workers.

A San Francisco police officer who was taken off field duty four years ago after a flurry of complaints and brutality lawsuits that have cost the city more than $400,000 has been fired over charges of abusive conduct stemming from a 2007 incident, The Chronicle has learned. Jesse Serna, 45, who was on the force for 16 years, was put on desk duty in 2007 by then-Police Chief Heather Fong after a string of incidents involving use of force, including one in 2006 that led to a $385,000 civil settlement.

Inmates have ended a three-week hunger strike in the high-security Pelican Bay State Prison in Del Norte County to protest conditions in isolation units at the facility and what they said were oppressive gang-security measures by prison officials, California prison officials say.

The family of an East Oakland barber shot and killed in November by two Oakland police officers is suing the city for $10 million over his death. The suit names officers Eriberto Perez-Angeles and Omar Daza-Quiroz, alleging they arbitrarily shot Derrick Jones, 37, as he sat on the ground in an alley after he was unable to hop a fence as he fled from them. Attorney John Burris, who is representing the family, said he has found witnesses who contradict the police version of the story, but has yet to receive any of the official police reports he's requested.

UCSF plans to install seat belts on all of its shuttles in the wake of a crash that killed a respected psychiatrist, officials said as his friends and colleagues prepared to remember him at a campus memorial this afternoon. Dr. Kevin Allen Mack, 52, of San Francisco was a passenger on a UCSF shuttle bus that witnesses said ran a red light and crashed into a tractor-trailer truck at Octavia and Oak streets on July 14.

A team of Bay Area researchers faced a herculean challenge 15 months ago: Sequence the DNA of more than 100,000 Kaiser Permanente members who joined an unprecedented study of genetics and environmental conditions links health. On Thursday, the elated scientists announced they had crossed the finish line. "This moment represents a technological tour de force," said Cathy Schaefer, executive director of the Kaiser Permanente Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health in Oakland.

NFL owners approved a proposed 10-year labor agreement with the NFL Players Association on Thursday, leaving the potential end to the league's lockout in the hands of the players. Owners voted 31-0 to accept the proposed collective bargaining agreement, with the Oakland Raiders abstaining, after a full day of meetings at an Atlanta-area hotel. NFLPA leaders told ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen a vote among its 32 player representatives appears likely Friday after the group received the "finishing points" of the agreement NFL owners approved Thursday.