SF Muni Assault: Cops Seek Woman Whose Hair Was Lit On Fire

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco police are looking for the person who intentionally set fire to a woman’s hair on a Muni bus last month, according to a news release from police on Wednesday.

The release included a video of the assault, captured on the bus’s surveillance camera, which shows the young male attacker, accompanied by two other people, using a lighter to burn the hair on the back of the woman’s head.

Officers from the Tenderloin Police Station responded on May 2 at 2:25 p.m., meeting the #5 Fulton Street Muni bus where the assault occurred, at McAllister and Leavenworth Streets.

The bus operator told police that a passenger’s hair had been set on fire by an unidentified teenager. After exiting the bus, the assailant and his two associates were last seen fleeing eastbound on McAllister Street.

The SFPD Special Investigations Detail is considering the case an aggravated assault and is working to identify the woman's attacker and two other persons of interest who accompanied him on the bus, authorities said.

According to investigators, both the victim and suspect boarded at McAllister and Laguna Streets. Investigators believe the assailant and the two other persons of interest are juveniles, a spokesperson for the department said.

The victim was described as a female of Filipino or Latin descent, between 50 and 60 years old, with dark hair and eyeglasses. A police spokesperson told Patch investigators do not believe the crime was racially motivated.

The woman in the video did not appear to notice the assault and left the scene shortly after. Police are calling for the victim to come forward with a statement.