SFPD LGBTQ+ forum discusses recent Castro assault

More news about the violent Easter Sunday assault in the Castro was revealed at the quarterly meeting of the San Francisco Police Department’s LGBTQ+ advisory forum. The incident is the latest in a string of brutal attacks that have concerned city leaders and residents of the LGBTQ neighborhood.

The forum meets quarterly and its most recent meeting was April 23. In another matter the forum heard from a transgender woman who’s now a sergeant with the SFPD.

Castro incidents
As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, Andrew Davais, 34, was charged in the apparently unprovoked Easter attack on a man in the Castro. Davais is in San Francisco County Jail. He has 18 prior criminal cases, according to gay Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman. In the recent incident, Davais is facing a charge of assault with force likely to commit great bodily injury after allegedly punching a man in the face at Castro and Market streets just before 6 p.m. Sunday.

It happened just as thousands of people had left Mission Dolores Park following the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s Easter celebration. Celebrations for 4/20 (cannabis) and the Cherry Blossom Festival were also taking place in the city on a busy day.

Davais was followed by Castro residents who witnessed the incident, though they were told not to by the 911 operator, and they remained on the phone with the dispatcher until Davais was arrested.

At the SFPD forum, Castro Community on Patrol’s Ken Craig said, “As he [the victim] fell back, he hit his head on the planter, and had a seizure while he was on the ground.”

There was some discussion of the long police response time for the incident.

“People kept calling and calling,” said SFPD Captain Christopher Del Gandio, the first out gay SFPD captain and the department's co-chairperson of the forum. “It wasn’t until six minutes in that someone said he might have had a seizure. It seemed not as serious [initially] with the calls coming in.”

One of those Castro residents who'd called 911, Patrick McCabe, reached out to the B.A.R. after the initial online publication of this report to state that Del Gandio was mistaken.

McCabe provided the B.A.R. a video recording containing in the background the beginning of the 911 call, in which it was said while the suspect was at Castro and Market that the victim was having a seizure.

"You can hear me on the phone with dispatch one of the first things I say is that he is having a seizure," McCabe stated. "We expressed very clearly how severe it was."

Greg Carey, a gay man who is chair of CCOP, said civilians in pursuit are told they shouldn’t follow in case they are harmed in giving chase, but that information they give is nonetheless helpful.

Davais was supposed to be arraigned April 23 and then on April 24 but, though he is in custody, refused to come to court, District 8 public safety liaison Dave Burke, a straight ally, told the B.A.R. He is scheduled to appear again Friday, Burke said.

Craig said that there’ve been even more than the three violent incidents in the Castro the B.A.R. has recently reported about. Including the Easter attack, there was a fight at the Walgreens at 18th and Castro streets between an employee and an alleged shoplifter, and a brutal beating outside the Castro Theatre.

However, because people have not reported the other incidents to police, SFPD cannot do anything. Craig said three such incidents went unreported.

“I encourage people to report as soon as possible,” Craig said. “If you don’t report as soon as possible, it’s difficult to build evidence, get suspects, and without a report, police can’t do anything because they’re not allowed to investigate. You can always choose not to press charges, but if you don’t report it, it eventually might get lost.”

Carey said one thing that would help would be if the police had an official, public-facing LGBTQ liaison for the city; that way, the community and the department could build trust through an individual. The forum decided to ask Chief William Scott about this matter. (Burke is only responsible for District 8.)

Scott’s office didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

“Having a view, especially for the media, so there’s always that one face that connects the police department with a person they can know and trust,” is important, Carey said.

As the B.A.R. previously reported, the forum made updated “Stop the Violence” signs for Castro-area businesses. The signs are to let crime victims know that they can go to the merchant for safety before law enforcement can arrive.

These were supposed to be distributed April 19, but because the SFPD media team could not be there, distribution has largely been pushed back to a date and time to be determined.

Trans sergeant shares story
SFPD Sergeant Mikayla Connell, the first out transgender person to make it through the police academy – she graduated in 2014 – and former board chair of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, discussed her experience of being a trans police sergeant.

Connell said that she’s by and large had a pleasant experience in the SFPD.

“Nobody’s ever come and said, ‘You’re an’ insert insult, ‘You’re a DEI hire,’” Connell said, referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion. “To my face, nobody has ever been rude and disrespectful.”

However, members of the public can be a different story.

“Once a week someone will say, ‘Are you a man or a woman?’ and after a decade of this, I say ‘No,’” Connell said. “And they say, ‘What do I call you, sergeant?”

Asked why “No” and not “Yes,” Connell said she feels she doesn’t necessarily embody either masculinity or femininity.

“I know people who embody both, but I don’t do either particularly well,” Connell said. “I do me well.”

Connell said that while, “I have had middle-aged women say, ‘You can’t touch me. You’re not a real woman. You’re not allowed to touch me,” younger people are more tolerant.

In one episode, police were trying to subdue a 16-year-old girl who they say had attempted to stab her father with a broken piece of a mirror.

“We’re rolling on the floor with this girl … she looks at me and she says, ‘Why is your voice so deep?” Connell recalled.

She answered, “Because I’m transgender.”

The girl answered, “Omg, I’m so sorry.”

“All of a sudden the whole thing calms down,” Connell recalled. “That’s happened more than once. Sometimes it actually triggers something sort of positive.”

Connell joined the academy after meeting a trans officer at a resource fair at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center.

Much of Connell’s work is in the Tenderloin, she said.

Anyone interested in joining the forum is encouraged to reach out to [email protected]. Craig said people of color, queer women, and members of the trans community are particularly welcome to apply.


Updated, 4/25/25: This article has been updated with comments from aman who called 911 after during the Easter incident in the Castro.