A Brownsville man has now been charged with multiple felonies, including eight counts of attempted murder, in connection with a September 1 spree of violence and mayhem that began with a hit-and-run collision in the Haight.
Anthony Carl Sheldone, 42, of Challenge-Brownsville in Yuba County, is the suspect arrested following the September 1 chaos involving a marauding vehicle, and a stabbing that left one person injured.
"I am grateful that no one lost their life in this horrific series of violent incidents that transpired last weekend,” said District Attorney Brooke Jenkins in a statement. “Random, unprovoked, violence like this shake[s] members of our community to the core. My office will now do everything in our power to ensure that there is justice in this case."
We thought that the incident began around 8:30 am on the morning of Sunday, September 1, when a person was seriously stabbed near Broderick and Fell streets. But the DA's office now suggests that the spree began earlier, at 7:18 am, with an incident seen on surveillance video of a man walking a dog getting knocked down by a vehicle outside Brioche Bakery on Haight Street.
Sheldone then, allegedly, "drove head on into an oncoming car and physically assaulted another person waiting at a bus stop on Stanyan Street."
The Broderick and Fell stabbing may be this incident, described by investigators, in which Sheldone is "alleged to have asked a woman on the street to take her clothes off and then stab[bed] her husband who confronted him."
There is also this: "Later he is alleged to have run over two people crossing the street at the intersection of Stanyan Street and Fulton Street."
And: "At approximately 8:55 AM he is alleged to have hit and run over a 70-year-old victim who was crossing the street at Van Ness Avenue and Golden Gate Avenue."
Police earlier said that Sheldone, after being confronted by police near Dolores Park, rammed a police cruiser and fled into the Castro. It wasn't until he exited his vehicle and climbed a tree near Carson and Douglass streets that police finally surrounded him, and he was apprehended after he leapt 35 feet to the ground, out of that tree, and injured himself enough that he required hospitalization.
Sheldone was arraigned Monday morning, September 9, and he faces eight counts of attempted murder, seven counts of assault with a with a deadly weapon, one count of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, one count of criminal threats, one count of attempted assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of battery with injury to emergency personnel, two counts of assault upon a peace officer, one count of evading against traffic, and one count of evading an officer with willful disregard.
Prosecutors have moved to have him held in custody until trial, due to the danger he poses to the public.
Although charges have been filed, the DA's office stress that this remains an active investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact the SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD.
Previously: Weekend Stabbing In SF Turns Into Crime Spree That Ends In Castro District
Image of SFPD vehicles during brief standoff on September 1 via Citizen app