The man charged with stabbing two elderly women near Fourth and Stockton streets in 2021 left San Francisco's Mental Health Diversion program after nearly two years. Patrick Thompson's case has moved through competency hearings, hospital commitments and a diversion program since well before his arrest.
In a statement posted to X, the SF District Attorney's Office
said it had secured a verdict concerning Brian Thompson, who was committed after a 1987 murder.
Thompson's run-ins with the legal system predate the 2021 stabbing by years. A San Francisco judge found him incompetent to face assault charges stemming from 2017 and ordered him sent to a state hospital for treatment, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. A judge declared doubt about his competency that November, and he was transferred to Napa State Hospital in February 2018, the paper reported.
A Long Road Through Monitoring and Diversion
By October 2018, a judge had granted Thompson's release from custody on the condition that he wear an electronic monitor, the Chronicle reported. He remained on that monitoring for roughly three months before being accepted into San Francisco's Mental Health Diversion program in January 2019, per the same account. ABC News has offered a different timeline for that step, reporting that Thompson began participating in a state mental health diversion program in October 2018 — a discrepancy the available record does not resolve.
Then came May 4, 2021. Police arrested the 54-year-old Thompson after two women were stabbed at Fourth and Stockton streets in San Francisco, according to writer Susan Reynolds, who reported officers took him into custody just two hours after the attack. He was subsequently charged with two counts of premeditated attempted murder and two counts of elder abuse, ABC News reported, after the victims were identified as elderly Asian women.
How California Handles Insanity and Mental Health Commitments
Under California law, people found not guilty by reason of insanity may be committed to a state hospital for mental health treatment rather than sentenced to prison. The California Department of State Hospitals describes these so-called NGI patients as individuals committed by courts directly from jail, generally for no longer than the maximum prison sentence tied to their offense — unless the mental disease, defect or disorder changes that calculation.
Those committed after an insanity finding undergo annual reviews, and any possibility of release requires both court approval and medical clearance, according to the Daily Breeze. Separately, the state hospitals department notes that if someone still requires treatment once a parole term ends, they can be civilly committed under Penal Code section 2972 if found to pose a substantial danger to themselves or others — commitments that last one year and can be renewed annually by a court.
State Hospital Population Projections
The Chronicle's editorial board has reported that the state hospitals system projected 1,033 people meeting certain high-risk criteria would be housed in its facilities by June 30, 2026, out of a total projected population of 5,772.
