Man arrested after Molotov cocktail attack at Sam Altman’s home

A Molotov cocktail set the exterior gate at Sam Altman’s Russian Hill home on fire before dawn on April 10, and police say the same suspect later threatened OpenAI’s headquarters in Mission Bay, turning a high-profile address into the center of a fast-moving public-safety case.

Authorities identified the man arrested in the case as 20-year-old Daniel Moreno-Gama of Spring, Texas. No one was injured, but the alleged sequence of events, a fire at a residence tied to one of the world’s best-known artificial intelligence executives, followed by threats at OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters, rattled a neighborhood that is usually defined by steep streets, old apartment buildings and quiet residential blocks.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the state case includes two attempted-murder counts, one involving Altman and one involving a security guard, along with arson-related charges. Jenkins said the state charges could carry 19 years to life if Moreno-Gama is convicted. Federal prosecutors separately charged him with attempted damage and destruction of property by means of explosives and possession of an unregistered firearm.

U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian said investigators would consider domestic-terrorism charges if evidence shows the attack was meant to coerce policy or government action. Federal and local reports said officers found incendiary devices, a jug of kerosene, a lighter and a written document titled “Your Last Warning,” which allegedly contained anti-AI content and named industry executives with addresses.

The defense has pushed a very different account of Moreno-Gama’s state of mind. His public defender, Diamond Ward, said he has autism and was in an acute mental-health crisis. Reports also said Moreno-Gama’s parents publicly described him as suffering a mental-health crisis and said they were worried about his wellbeing.

Judge Kenneth Wine ordered Moreno-Gama held without bail, and his arraignment was set for May 5 in San Francisco Superior Court. The case has already become a test of how the city responds when a mental-health crisis, a political grievance and a violent act collide in a dense residential area where the target is immediately recognizable.

Concern deepened after a separate reported shooting near Altman’s home in the days after the Molotov attack, when police later arrested two people after a gunshot was allegedly fired from a passing vehicle. For Russian Hill residents and the city’s tech corridor alike, the message was blunt: one incendiary attack can quickly force a neighborhood into a larger debate about security, extremism and the limits of crisis response.