A San Francisco man has been charged with a hate crime in connection with the stabbing of a supportive housing hotel employee in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood on Sept. 13, the District Attorney’s Office said Thursday.
Oscar Chatman, 27, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges of attempted murder, assault with a non-firearm deadly weapon, vandalism over $400, second-degree burglary, making criminal threats and a special allegation of anti-LGBTQ hate crimes.
“The alleged attack in a Tenderloin permanent supportive housing building left a man seriously injured and a neighborhood shocked,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement. “I offer my unwavering commitment to pursuing justice and ensuring that the suspect is held accountable for this senseless crime. Residents and staff at supportive housing sites, like all city residents, need to be safe where they live and work.”
Officers responded just after 11 a.m. Sept. 13 to reports of a stabbing at the Windsor, a single-room occupancy hotel on Eddy Street, where they said they found a victim with multiple injuries. Paramedics took the victim to a nearby hospital, officials said.
The suspect fled the scene but was arrested a short time later, police said. Investigators recovered a knife allegedly used in the incident.
A preliminary hearing for Chatman is set for next Wednesday. If convicted of all charges, he could face life in state prison.