Police are trying to find a woman they believe left racist threats at the home of a San Francisco dog walker who lives by Alamo Square.
Terry Williams, who is Black, reported the crime in the spring, telling the San Francisco Police Department he received packages, each containing a blackface doll with a noose around its neck, on April 26 and May 5 at his Grove Street home.
Weeks later, Williams’ home was burned down; the cause of the fire remains unknown. The fire also destroyed an adjoining unit where his parents live.
On Friday, the SFPD named a suspect in the case — 67-year-old San Francisco resident April Martin Chartrand — and issued a bulletin asking for the public’s help to find her.
Chartrand’s family reported her missing Aug. 23, according to the SFPD. Authorities urged anyone who sees her to call 911 with her location and physical description.
“The San Francisco Police Department does not tolerate racism of any kind,” the department wrote in a press release Friday. “No one should be targeted because of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or any other shared characteristic.”
Williams expressed relief that police named a suspect but shock that it’s a neighbor who is Black.
“That fucked me up,” he told The Standard in a phone call Friday afternoon.
The dog walker said he’s puzzled about what prompted the behavior. The only interaction he recalls having with Chartrand was around 2018; he said he confronted her about putting broken plates outside her home to prevent dogs from peeing in her yard.
“I’m an animal lover,” he said, “so I asked her, ‘Why are you doing that?’ And I guess she got in trouble or something with the people at her building.”
The Standard was unable to reach Chartrand on Friday.
A LinkedIn page that appears to be Chartrand’s indicates that she has a master’s degree in psychology from San Francisco State University; an Instagram account under her name lists her as a dominatrix. A landing page on SFSU says her research has focused on, among other things, the “subcultured, racialized and marginalized” and women of color in the Bay Area fetish scene.
On Facebook last month, Chartrand published a post urging people to condemn bigotry after describing how “an evil hegemonic woman” yelled a racist comment at her in front of about 30 people in the Mission District.
“When this happened, I knew I was alone yet again at 67 years of age … and was really scared, as everyone just looked at me like I was dirt or invisible,” the Aug. 11 post reads. “I ran out of there so fast … it was very triggering, yet again. This kind of thing is so triggering and just scary beyond anything I can say here. So, use this as a lesson to open your perceptions about the undercurrents of racism and bigotry that is pervasive in all of society and also in San Francisco (USA).”
It’s not clear what makes police believe Chartrand is a suspect in the case of the racist threats or if she’s also suspected in the fire that destroyed Williams’ home.
It’s hard to fathom that someone would hold a grudge for so long, Williams said, adding that he’s glad to at least dispense with some of the uncertainty he has faced for months.
“That was a lot of stress,” he said. “Not knowing who it was made me really uncomfortable around people. It completely changed the fabric of who I am.”
In addition to being hypervigilant, Williams said, he cut ties with people who thought he manufactured the hate crime and subsequent house fire.
“My circle of friends got smaller,” he said.
But community support has been a lifeline.
Community members held a rally for Williams soon after the hate crime made headlines. In the months since the fire displaced his family, the burned-down building became a makeshift monument to solidarity: Hundreds of people left uplifting notes and art that now cover the exterior.
“That meant everything to me,” he said. “That’s what really got me through this thing.”