A San Francisco man died after his sleeping bag was set on fireplace early Saturday within the metropolis’s Mission District, police mentioned Wednesday.
The 43-year-old man, whose identify has not been launched, was asleep on the nook of twenty fifth Road and South Van Ness Avenue on Friday. He awoke to search out his sleeping bag in flames, officers mentioned.
The San Francisco Police Division responded to the report of an aggravated assault with fireplace at 5 a.m. Saturday.
The sufferer sustained accidents to his decrease extremities and was transported to a neighborhood hospital for remedy. He handed away the following day. The San Francisco Workplace of the Chief Medical Examiner known as the incident a murder; an investigation is underway.
The incident is an instance of the extraordinarily harmful atmosphere individuals who lack everlasting housing face on San Francisco streets.
Robert Rueca, an SFPD spokesperson, mentioned the acts of violence dedicated towards town’s weak inhabitants are tragic.
“We all know they’re a weak neighborhood,” Rueca mentioned. “And town is doing all they’ll to deal with not solely the violence, [but also] present folks in the neighborhood the assets they should enhance the state of affairs.”
Individuals residing open air are additionally usually robbed when they’re sleeping. “Clearly with theft, that is a distinct image for somebody who has all their belongings with them, for somebody who would not have so much to start with,” Rueca mentioned. “It is that rather more threatening to their capacity to proceed.”
Jennifer Friedenbach, director of the Coalition on Homelessness, mentioned the incident was “actually tragic” and will have been simply prevented if the sufferer had a house.
“When a person doesn’t have a door to lock, they exist on the mercy of these round them, and are simple targets for violence – violence that usually happens when they’re sleeping, violence that usually goes unreported,” Friedenbach mentioned in an announcement. “Including to that lack of security a house supplies, far too usually unhoused folks expertise hate primarily based assaults as members of a category of people who find themselves scapegoated, typecast and vilified for his or her impoverished standing. Coverage makers in SF sadly have for many years tapped into the concern many individuals really feel round homelessness and use homeless folks as a political wedge, furthering the dehumanization course of and driving up violence towards them. ”
Anybody with data on the incident can name the police division tip line at (415) 575-4444 or textual content a tip to TIP411 and start the textual content message with SFPD. Chances are you’ll stay nameless.
