SAN FRANCISCO—On Monday, August 16, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office announced the filing of 33 charges, including hate crime allegations, against Derik Barreto for 27 separate incidents against 20 primarily Chinese-owned businesses. The District Attorney’s Office noted that the string of offenses occurred between April and August 2021 were racially motivated. Barreto was scheduled to be arraigned on Monday.
“We absolutely do not tolerate violence or hate in San Francisco. Chinese-owned businesses should be able to operate without fear of being racially targeted by vandalism, burglary, or harassment,” said San Francisco District Attorney Boudin. “We stand with San Francisco’s AAPI community against hate and will do everything in our power to make sure everyone is and feels safe.”
The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office charged Barreto with the following counts:
-27 felony counts of Vandalism (Penal Code 594(b)(1))
-4 felony counts of Second Degree Burglary (Penal Code 459)
-1 misdemeanor count of Possession of Burglary Tools, (Penal Code 466)
-1 misdemeanor count of Possession of a Concealed Weapon (Penal Code 21310)
-A hate crime enhancement accompanies 31 counts (Penal Code 422.75)
According to a news release from the SFDA’s Office, all 27 vandalism charges stem from incidents this year, Barreto allegedly traveled on a scooter and shattered the windows of 20 separate stores and is alleged to have used a slingshot, pipe, or hammer to break windows of primarily Chinese-owned businesses along the Ocean Avenue corridor and in the Mission. Five counts of second-degree burglary were also charged because of five separate incidents where the defendant is alleged to have taken cash and other items after entering the businesses’ broken windows.
A total of 31 hate crime enhancements were charged as a result of comments Barreto allegedly made to police, suggesting that he intentionally targeted businesses he believed to be Chinese-owned and that he was motivated by the perceived race and nationality of the victims.
In May, the SF District Attorney’s Office held a virtual summit on protecting the AAPI community from hate and violence, which featured a keynote by Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu and two panels comprised of political and community leaders and experts.
“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a deeply concerning increase in the incidence of hate and violence against the AAPI community,” Boudin stated. “We will not stand for it and we will do everything in our power to stop it.”
Anyone who may have witnessed or experienced a hate crime is asked to call the San Francisco District Attorney’s Hate Crime hotline at (628) 652-4311.
