The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office charged a 21-year-old man Thursday in a violent attack on an 81-year-old woman in the city’s Cathedral Hill neighborhood on July 26.
Curtis Dubbels was charged with elder abuse and assault, each with allegations of causing great bodily injury and a charge of battery causing great bodily injury, the District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Dubbels was booked into San Francisco County Jail just before 3 p.m. Saturday on suspicion of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, elder abuse and three counts of possession of drug paraphernalia.
But he was not charged with attempted murder in the attack, which sent the woman to a hospital for treatment of injuries. Drug paraphernalia charges were also not pursued by the DA’s office.
At his court arraignment Wednesday, Dubbels pleaded not guilty to all charges. He was listed in county jail on Thursday morning, according to jail records. He could face up to nine years in state prison if convicted of all charges, the DA’s Office said. A preliminary court hearing has been set for Aug. 15.
“We must protect seniors in our community from all forms of elder abuse and prevent them from being preyed upon, as these neighbors are quite often the most vulnerable,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said.
San Francisco police said officers from the department’s Northern Station responded to Franklin Street between Ellis and O’Farrell streets in the city’s Cathedral Hill neighborhood around 2:20 p.m. July 27 for a reported assault that happened the previous day.
When officers arrived, they spoke to an elderly woman who told them she had been walking near Franklin and Myrtle streets around 5 p.m. July 26 when someone shoved her off the sidewalk.
She said the shove sent her into the roadway, where she landed in a traffic lane and hurt her head. The woman managed to get to a hospital for treatment of her injuries.
Investigators later found surveillance camera footage capturing the shove and shared it with officers.
At around 11:22 a.m. Saturday, officers responded to a call about a person carrying an edged weapon on Franklin Street near Ellis Street. After finding and detaining the person, officers recognized and arrested him on suspicion of the earlier assault.