Homeless woman screamed for help as man hosed her, CA video shows. He’s now charged
A 71-year-old gallery owner in California has been arrested and charged with battery after officials say he sprayed a woman experiencing homelessness with water, authorities said.
At about 12 p.m. Jan. 9, San Francisco police officers were called to Montgomery Street about a possible assault involving a woman and a 71-year-old man, according to a news release by the department.
A week after the dispute on Jan. 18, the San Francisco District Attorney issued an arrest warrant for the man identified as Collier Gwin, according to a post on Twitter by San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
“The alleged battery of an unhoused member of our community is completely unacceptable,” Jenkins said on Twitter. “Gwin will face appropriate consequences for his actions.”
In the video, Gwin can be heard telling the woman to “move.”
“I thought it was really disturbing,” Alex Sakiyama, who lives in the area, told KGO. “I think it’s not okay no matter how bothered you are in any given situation. I think it’s not okay to spray water at someone.”
Gwin, a San Francisco resident for 45 years, told CBS News Bay Area he had grown frustrated after “he spent days cleaning up her mess and letting her sleep in his doorway.”
“I’m out there once again cleaning her mess,” Gwin said, according to CBS News Bay Area. “Washing it down, trying to clean up stuff, and I just snapped. I was watering around her, and I just snapped, when she went off in her belligerent tongues and stuff. And I just snapped and I pulled the hose up higher, and I sprayed her.”
The man was arrested at about 3:30 p.m. Jan. 18 on Montgomery Street, police said. He was sent to the San Francisco County Jail where he was booked on charges of battery.
“We have a problem but that’s not the way to solve it,” John Schram, another person who lives near where the incident occurred, told KGO.
Nearly 8,000 people experienced homelessness in San Francisco in 2022, according to the City of San Francisco’s website.
About half of those experiencing homelessness were unsheltered, with 80% reporting sleeping outdoors, according to Applied Survey Research’s San Francisco homeless count survey.
Of those surveyed, 21% reported their primary reason for becoming homeless was losing their job.
Gwin, owner of Foster Gwin Gallery on Montgomery Street faces up to “six months in county jail and a $2,000 fine,” according to CBS News Bay Area.
This story was originally published January 19, 2023 at 9:10 AM.