A third suspect in a brutal assault and fatality from two years ago in the Financial District was arrested Wednesday, November 16th, in Stockton. According to the SFPD, Anthony Gibson-Brum, 22, has been booked into San Francisco County Jail on charges of murder, robbery, elder abuse and mayhem.
The fatal attack occurred on Nov. 23, 2014. San Francisco Police responded to a call regarding a 67-year-old victim on the ground on the block 100 of Sutter Street. The victim, Tai Thuan Lam, was found with “blunt force injuries all over his body,” police said, and he died of his injuries at San Francisco General Hospital.
Footage of the attack was later discovered on surveillance video, and it graphically showed the perpetrators repeatedly kicking the defenseless, disabled man.
The SFPD's investigation first resulted in the apprehension of an Idaho resident, 21-year-old Joseph Stull, on September 22nd of this year. The arrest of Stockton resident David Peters, also 21 years old, followed on October 25th.
After the first two arrests, Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius used his Oct. 31st column to describe the “savage and unprovoked attack" on the homeless man and the ensuing investigation in detail.
According to Nevius' account, surveillance video clearly showed the perpetrators' faces, but footage released to the public, as well as DNA taken from the scene, did not turn up any leads. However, a break in the case came when Stull was arrested in Washington state on a stolen-car charge. His DNA appeared in the national crime database and matched with the samples SFPD collected two years prior.
Stull and Peters pleaded not guilty at their arraignment earlier this month, and all three suspects are being held on $5 million bail, the Chronicle reported this week.
