A 52-year-old man was charged Tuesday with making homophobic criminal threats after two incidents at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
The accusations against Solomon Kahiviano Casperson came six months after a social worker was fatally stabbed in the hospital’s HIV/AIDS clinic and workers called for more safety measures.
Casperson was charged with three felony counts of making criminal threats in a sensitive area and one felony count of stalking. He was on parole for a second-degree robbery and on probation for a recent vandalism conviction, prosecutors said.
The District Attorney’s Office said Casperson became verbally aggressive with a healthcare worker at the hospital on April 4 when he was asked to go to a waiting room.
Casperson refused to go “while using a homophobic slur multiple times and then saying that he did not like gay people and would follow the worker to his car and kill him,” prosecutors said.
On June 8, Casperson allegedly returned to the hospital used homophobic slurs while making death threats, the District Attorney’s Office said.
The incidents recalled the death of social worker Alberto Rangel, who died in December when a patient allegedly stabbed him at the HIV/AIDS clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
The stabbing sparked fears among UCSF staff and social workers, who called for UCSF to implement greater safety measures for staff, establish minimum staffing levels, reduce caseloads for social workers, and provide counseling and additional paid sick leave for workers affected by the tragedy.