The suspect has now been named in Sunday's bizarre incident that began in North Beach and led to a police chase across the Bay that included improvised explosives.
The SFPD revealed late Monday that the suspect is 42-year-old Concord resident Daniel Garcia. As the Chronicle reports, Garcia has a significant criminal past, and a former girlfriend who had a restraining order against him says she is "not surprised" by the latest charges.
"I would have nightmares about the house being lit on fire," the girlfriend, who preferred to remain anonymous, tells the Chronicle. She says that Garcia was obsessed with fire and even threatened her with Molotov cocktails.
She took out a domestic violence-related restraining order against Garcia over a decade ago, in 2010.
A year later, in 2011, Garcia was convicted in federal court for a car bombing in Fairfield, following an eight-hour standoff with SWAT officers.
Garcia grew up in Fairfield, as the Chronicle reports, and his brushes with the law date all the way back to 1996, when, as a juvenile, he was arrested on suspicion of arson and use of a destructive device.
The former girlfriend says Garcia had a substance abuse problem, and that doing cocaine and taking steroids would exacerbate his rage.
According to a police report obtained by the Chronicle, Garcia was arrested in May of this year in a domestic violence incident involving a new girlfriend. Following that incident, Concord officials petitioned the court to have his shotgun taken away from him.
That girlfriend, according to police, had visible injuries and a partially shaven head when Garcia was arrested, apparently due to a his forcibly trying to shave her head.
Garcia is accused of punching a parishioner Sunday evening at Saints Peter and Paul Church on Filbert Street in North Beach, during a service. According to police, Garcia asked the parishioner for money, and when he was ignored, assaulted the person, temporarily rendering them unconscious.
After exiting the church, Garcia was seen carrying a closed folding knife, and he allegedly then got in his car and, while being chased by the SFPD, tossed a pipe bomb out of his car at the officers' vehicle.
A second explosive device, which has been described as both a pipe bomb and a Molotov cocktail, was allegedly tossed at police near Eighth and Mission streets, before Garcia got onto the freeway toward the East Bay.
CHP took over the chase, and with the help of a CHP helicopter, Garcia was arrested Sunday in Martinez.
Supervisor Aaron Peskin called the incident one of the "weirdest things ever," and he added, "Thank God nobody got seriously hurt."
Charges against Garcia are still pending.
The case remains an open investigation and anyone with information to share is asked to call the SFPD tip line at 415-575-4444, or text a tip to TIP411, beginning the message with "SFPD."
