Suspect identified in racist harassment and threats of black dog walker

San Francisco police investigators confirmed Thursday evening that they have identified a possible suspect in the hate crimes committed against Terry Williams, the black dog walker who lived with his parents in a duplex in Alamo Square.

This house has been uninhabitable since a fire broke out on May 21. It's unclear whether police believe the person is also a suspect in the fire, and San Francisco firefighters have not yet concluded that arson caused the blaze.

Lt. Bassey Obot, who oversees hate crimes at SFPD, made the announcement during a community meeting Thursday evening hosted by District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston. Obot said police could not confirm anything else regarding the investigation because it is still ongoing.

“To date, we have executed two search warrants and investigated a possible suspect,” Obot said. “I don't want to divulge any details or compromise it in a way that might help the suspect cover his tracks or anything like that.”

Obot called it a serious case. “The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office takes hate crimes very seriously. They are looking for aggressive prosecutions. And usually when my office handles these cases, we have a lot of evidence.

Sitting next to Obot, two fire officials, Capt. Chad Law and Chief of Operations Darius Lutropp, told the audience that their department could not comment on its separate investigation into the causes of the fire because it is also in progress.

Williams received two packages at his home in early May, five days apart, each containing black dolls and a series of racist slurs and threats. Then, last week, the house he lives in with his parents and nephew burned down in an unexplained fire. Throughout this ordeal, the community around Williams organized events and two GoFundMe campaigns to support the family. One was launched after the packages were reported and raised $128,070. The other was launched after the fire and raised $112,960.

Williams, who was also present at the meeting, took the stage and thanked all the community supporters as well as Law and Lutropp for the firefighters' quick response to the fire.