A 64-year-old gay man says a stranger lunged at him with a fork and knife, striking him twice on the head inside a Castro Street restaurant earlier this month. San Francisco police have now arrested a 38-year-old Berkeley man in connection with that attack and three others during a chaotic afternoon near 440 Castro.
Randy Moore told the Bay Area Reporter he had planned to meet friends at 1:10 p.m. on November 4 at the parklet outside 440 Castro, hoping to celebrate Democrats retaking control of Congress in the midterm election. Instead, he said he saw a disturbance near 440 Castro and noticed people in the street who appeared to have been assaulted. Moore told the paper a bartender had told a man to move along and stop harassing and assaulting patrons.
Moore said he then entered the Cove restaurant while things seemed to calm down, according to the same account. Inside, he said the man demanded waffles and chicken, and when a waiter told the man he needed to leave and said he would call 911, the man allegedly lunged at Moore with a fork and knife and hit him twice on the head.
Four People Were Assaulted
SFPD said four people were assaulted.
Police Arrest Berkeley Man
SFPD said it arrested 38-year-old Berkeley resident Donque Addison on suspicion of vandalism, battery, brandishing a knife, assault, and elder abuse.
SFPD strategic communications director Mason Lee described the investigation as open and active. Addison is not currently in custody and is due in Department 20 of the Hall of Justice at 9 a.m. on November 13, SFPD said. The San Francisco District Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment on whether Addison has entered a plea or what charges he formally faces, according to the Bay Area Reporter. Anyone with information is asked to contact SFPD at 415-575-4444.
Part of a Pattern of Castro Violence
This is not the first time violence has rattled the stretch of Castro Street near Market. An April 2025 attack in which a man was allegedly punched in the face at Castro and Market streets just before 6 p.m. was described by the Bay Area Reporter as the latest in a string of neighborhood altercations. In that case, 34-year-old Andrew Davais was arrested and faced a felony charge of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, and police said the victim was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
That same report noted a bouncer at the Mix bar had been brutally assaulted the previous month, and that a Walgreens employee and an alleged shoplifter were both arrested after a violent confrontation with each other in March 2025. A separate beating of a bar employee outside the Castro Theatre on March 9, 2025, led to the arrest of 34-year-old Victor Barrios weeks later, who was charged with felony assault without a firearm, according to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office. The San Francisco Police Department confirmed officers located Barrios in South San Francisco and arrested him there.
