By Jane Tierney
San Francisco police on Friday arrested a recent Berkeley resident, now living in Albany, for using his SUV to allegedly mow down four bicyclists this week in a six-minute rampage.
Police charged David Mark Clark, 39, with four counts of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and felony hit and run. Police have not yet released the suspect’s name.
Clark was arrested Friday around 1 pm after he walked into the Albany police station to report that his blue Nissan Rogue crossover utility vehicle SUV had been stolen during a carjacking. That had been the car used in the bicycle attack.
On Wednesday, police had recovered identification, an iPhone and keys from the vehicle after the assailant hit a pole after the attacks and fled on foot. Police had traced ownership of the car to an address in Berkeley. They went there, only to find the owner had recently moved. They then traced the suspect to Albany and were searching for him when he walked into the police station.
The attack began at 9:43 pm Wednesday on Harrison Street in San Francisco when the SUV driver hit four cyclists around the Mission District and Potrero Hill in a six-minute period.
Police are viewing the incidents as assaults, since victims stated the driver of the SUV seemed to be targeting them by veering into their paths, at times driving on the wrong side of the street, lurching and speeding up before hitting them.
The four targeted bicyclists ranged in age from their 20s to 40s. Three remain hospitalized, one with a head injury and another with a broken leg.
Dave Campbell of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition stated “there’s a mindset with drivers and even some cyclists that everyone’s in my way, and we won’t increase safety until people change that view.” The EBBC is currently involved in efforts to increase education programs in Berkeley and Oakland about motorists and cyclists sharing the road, after the deaths of two cyclists in the East Bay in May.
“The Bay Area’s a crowded place, and we all need to share the road,” said Campbell.
Update:
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that Clark rented a room from a Berkeley homeowner for about four months but moved out in December. The woman said Clark was a kind man and “avid bicyclist.”
