San Francisco police on Friday named a suspect in a series of racist incidents that targeted the home of a longtime Black Alamo Square resident and dog walker, Terry Williams, whose family had said they felt abandoned by the city in the aftermath of the alleged hate crimes.
April Martin Chartrand, a 67-year-old Black city resident, left a series of racist packages at the home of beloved dog walker Williams, according to a communiqué sent by the police department today asking for the public’s help in locating the suspect.
Williams said he got a call today about Chartrand from the police chief, and upon seeing her image realized she is a neighbor and also lives on Alamo Square. He says he had one negative interaction with her years ago, which he believes resulted in Chartrand’s resentment toward him.
About five or six years ago, he says, Chartrand was breaking plates into tiny shards on the corner outside her apartment, and leaving them under a tree to prevent dogs from urinating there, Williams said.
“I said ‘What the hell are you doing, don’t do that, I have dogs!’” Williams said. “I’m an animal lover, I don’t care if you’re Black or not … she never liked me after that.”
Williams said that, for the past several years, Chartrand would “mug me, give me a mean look” when they would pass each other in the neighborhood.
Williams reported receiving a package on April 26 with items like a black doll with a noose around its neck and a list of racial slurs against Black people, and on May 5 received another similar package that included KKK imagery. Police called the first incident a hate crime. Soon after, his house went up in flames while his elderly parents were on the top floor — many connected the fire with the racist incidents, but the fire department says the cause of the blaze remains undetermined.
In late May, police announced they had a “possible suspect,” then in June released the photo of a “person of interest” in the hate crimes. Since then, Williams told Mission Local he had heard very little from the city about his case or getting support for housing in San Francisco.
Police put out a communiqué today seeking the general public’s assistance in locating the 67-year-old Chartrand, and announced they have obtained a warrant for Chartrand’s arrest.
A police source tells Mission Local that Chartrand was served with a DNA seizure warrant on Aug. 14. She purportedly attempted to flee and was chased down, and the DNA sample was obtained. A family member reported Chartrand as missing since August 23.
A call to Chartrand’s number went straight to voicemail.
Today, learning about the arrest warrant — though no arrest has yet been made — Willliams said he feels a sense of relief.
“What I feel is that I can finally breathe. Now I know who the person is,” Williams said, though he expressed disbelief that the hate mail came from a fellow Black person. “I have a lot of mixed emotions … What was on your mind? You wanna make this a racial thing, that’s crazy.”
Chartrand, according to her social media, has a master’s degree from San Francisco State University and is a dominatrix. She calls herself an artist, designer, and researcher who has created “DNA Streetstyle.”
On Aug. 11, Chartrand wrote a post condemning racism, after a run-in with a woman who yelled at her in the street of the Mission District.
“I ran out of there so fast … it was very triggering, yet again,” Chartrand wrote. “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).”
Chartrand also said she was met by “mass racism in every aspect of my life” while living in San Francisco since 1980.
Additional reporting by Joe Eskenazi
Police have asked anyone with information about this case to call 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and start the message with SFPD.
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