The 20-year-old Texas man who allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's Russian Hill home last Friday was charged Monday with attempted murder — twice over — along with attempted arson and a raft of federal explosives charges. Prosecutors are also leaving the door open for domestic terrorism charges, depending on what investigators find.
Daniel Moreno-Gama, from Spring, Texas, faces two counts of attempted murder at the state level — one for Altman, one for the security guard on duty when he allegedly threw the incendiary device at the metal gate of the Lombard Street property around 3:40 a.m. on April 10 — along with attempted arson and additional weapons charges, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced at a Monday press conference. On the federal level, he faces charges related to an unregistered firearm and attempted destruction of property by means of explosives, according to CNN. He was arraigned Tuesday afternoon; the DA is moving to hold him without bail pending trial.
A Planned, Cross-Country Attack
This was not a spontaneous act of rage. Authorities say Moreno-Gama traveled from the Houston area specifically to carry out the attack, arriving in San Francisco with multiple incendiary devices, a jug of kerosene, and a blue lighter. Security guards at Altman's property extinguished the small gate fire and surveillance cameras captured the whole sequence. Less than an hour after the attack on the home, a person matching Moreno-Gama's description turned up at OpenAI's Mission Bay headquarters — about three miles away — grabbed a chair, began striking the glass doors, and told security he had come to burn the building down and kill anyone inside, according to the federal criminal complaint. He was arrested on-site by SFPD. "This was not spontaneous. This was planned, targeted and extremely serious," FBI San Francisco Acting Special Agent in Charge Matt Cobo said at the press conference.
When arrested, Moreno-Gama was carrying a three-part manifesto he had written. The first section, titled "Your Last Warning," explicitly advocated for killing CEOs of AI companies and their investors. A separate section claimed responsibility for the attack on Altman and included the line: "Also if I am going to advocate for others to kill and commit crimes, then I must lead by example and show that I am fully sincere in my message," per ABC News. The document also contained a list of names and addresses of other AI company CEOs, board members, and investors. Investigators say Moreno-Gama had also emailed a version of the document to people at Lone Star College in Montgomery, Texas, his former school.
The Domestic Terrorism Question
U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian for the Northern District of California said at Monday's press conference that if the evidence shows the attacks were intended to change public policy or coerce government officials, the case will be prosecuted as domestic terrorism. The state charges already carry potential sentences ranging from 19 years to life in prison, per the DA's office. The FBI also raided Moreno-Gama's family home in The Woodlands, Texas, on Monday morning; neighbors described the family as "very nice people" involved with their church, per KHOU. It's not confirmed whether Moreno-Gama is currently enrolled in school; he reportedly had no active affiliation with any organized anti-AI group.
He had, however, posted on PauseAI's public Discord server about two years ago — roughly 34 messages, none containing explicit calls to violence, though one earned a warning from moderators for being "ambiguous," per The San Francisco Standard. PauseAI, which advocates for halting AI development, immediately condemned the attack and said Moreno-Gama had no role in the organization. Discord has since banned him for off-platform behavior.
A Second Incident — and a Broader Pattern
The Moreno-Gama charges aren't the only headline from Altman's block this weekend. The Standard reported Sunday that two additional people — Amanda Tom, 25, and Muhamad Tarik Hussein, 23 — were arrested early Sunday morning after a Honda sedan stopped in front of Altman's property on the Lombard side and someone in the passenger seat appeared to fire a round out the window, according to surveillance footage and security personnel. SFPD said the two were booked for negligent discharge of a firearm and that OpenAI told investigators the incident appeared unrelated to Altman. Three incidents in one weekend at the same address is not a number anyone in the city was hoping to see.
The attack on Altman's home lands against a backdrop of escalating anti-AI sentiment in San Francisco and beyond. The Standard noted that earlier this week, there was a shooting at the home of an Indiana elected official with a note found saying "No data centers." In November, an anti-AI activist chained himself to OpenAI's campus. Anti-war protesters recently marched outside OpenAI's headquarters over Pentagon contracts. The Altman home on Lombard Street had already been at the center of a legal dispute, with Altman suing the developer over alleged construction defects in the $27 million property.
Altman's Response
Hours after the initial Friday attack, Altman published a blog post on his personal site that included a rare photo of his husband and their toddler. "Normally we try to be pretty private, but in this case I am sharing a photo in the hopes that it might dissuade the next person from throwing a Molotov cocktail at our house, no matter what they think about me," he wrote, per TechCrunch. He acknowledged that "fear and anxiety about AI is justified" and that "we should de-escalate the rhetoric and tactics and try to have fewer explosions in fewer homes, figuratively and literally." The post also served as a response to a critical New Yorker profile published days earlier that raised pointed questions about his leadership and candor — a coincidence of timing that Altman noted directly. OpenAI said in a statement that "there is no place in our democracy for violence against anyone, regardless of the AI lab they work at or side of the debate they belong to."
