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San Francisco, CA (KPIX) — Video of a man dumping a bucket of water onto a homeless person from a Mission District rooftop over the weekend has sparked outrage in San Francisco.
The cruel incident caught on camera has people asking why someone would do such a thing.
KPIX 5 spoke with a witness who said this wasn’t the first time it has happened.
The video that is going viral shows a man on a rooftop at 20th and Bryant dumping water on a homeless woman’s tent below.
Witness Richard Caraballo, who is visiting from New York, said an earlier bucket drop Sunday afternoon was not caught on video. The homeless lady below took a direct hit and was drenched.
“I heard someone yelling up at the roof, like a woman screaming, and it turned out that she was wet from head to toe,” said Carabello.
After the first bucket drop, Caraballo said he walked outside the apartment where he is staying.
The woman started laying her clothes out to dry on the sidewalk when the camera caught the man with the bucket after he decided to attack her tent a second time.
“It happened again. She was going back to retrieve her wet stuff and the person walked out, dumped the water and just walked straight back,” said Carabello.
KPIX 5 spoke with several people living on the streets of the Mission who said this is not the first such attack. They know a lady in her 70s who also got water dumped on her.
“That makes me mad and angry. They have no reason to do it,” said homeless local Allen Lewis. “Because we’re all trying to survive.”
Caraballo echoed those sentiments. He said he would like to see the man brought to justice because he believes the actions were dangerous.
“I mean, it’s beyond dealing with the homeless,” Caraballo said. “He;s taking aggressive action and that’s something that needs to be dealt with. It’s cowardly. Like, he’s a coward.”
A man who works in the building spoke to KPIX 5 and said he has no idea who would do such a thing.
“I don’t know who it was. Probably it was some people from the place next door who were doing some work on the roof,” said the man, who did not want to be identified. “Because they also had access to it.”
San Francisco Police said they had not received any reports about the incident.
Kelly Cutler with the Coalition on Homelessness told KPIX5 the organization will be looking for the victim in an effort to offer her legal aid.
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