A man has been charged with 33 crimes against 20 primarily Chinese-owned businesses in San Francisco, stemming from 27 incidents of vandalism and burglary between April and Aug. 2021, District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced on Monday.
The offenses include over 30 hate crime enhancement charges after investigators determined the incidents to be racially motivated.
During the five-month span, Darik Barreto allegedly rode a scooter and shattered the windows of 20 separate Chinese-owned stores along the Ocean Ave. corridor in the Mission District. In addition, he reportedly burglarized five of those businesses, taking cash and other items.
He was charged with 31 hate crime enhancements based on statements he made to authorities where he suggested "he intentionally targeted businesses he believed to be Chinese-owned and that he was motivated by the perceived race and nationality of the victims," the District Attorney’s office said in a statement.
In total, Barreto was charged with 27 felony counts of vandalism, four felony counts of second degree burglary, misdemeanor counts of possession of burglary tools and possession of a concealed weapon, as well as the aforementioned 31 counts of hate crime enhancement.
Barreto is scheduled to be arraigned Monday afternoon.
"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," Boudin said. "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 District Attorney’s office said that they are "dedicated to combating hate against the AAPI community and other targeted communities." They have partnered with San Francisco police to educate the public on how to report hate crimes and held numerous training sessions to help officers address and investigate these incidents.
A report last week from Stop AAPI Hate found that there have been over 9,000 incidents of anti-Asian incidents in the U.S. since the pandemic.
"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 said. “We will not stand for it and we will do everything in our power to stop it."
The District Attorney’s office ask anyone who’s seen of been the victim of a hate crime to call their hate crime hot line at 628-652-4311.
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