Kinney's father, Peter Kinney of Lawrence, Mass., said his son had a long history of mental illness and once told police that someone had implanted a microchip in his head.
"He has been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic,'' he said. "He refused to take his medication. He went off the wall. That was two years ago.''
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The San Francisco Chronicle
NOVEMBER 2, 2005, WEDNESDAY, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: BAY AREA; Pg. B1
LENGTH: 645 words
HEADLINE: SAN FRANCISCO;
Homeless man suspected in fatal torching; Victim had been sleeping on the street in
Financial District
SOURCE: Chronicle Staff Writers
BYLINE: Jaxon Van Derbeken and Kevin Fagan
A 35-year-old homeless man is expected to be charged with murder after he allegedly doused another homeless man with gasoline and set him on fire in San Francisco's Financial District early Tuesday, authorities said.
The suspect, Scott Darden Kinney, allegedly set the 43-year-old man ablaze as the victim slept on the Beale Street sidewalk at 3:55 a.m., then stepped back to watch as the man lurched to his feet and started to scream, witnesses and police said.
The man died Tuesday evening at the burn center of St. Francis Memorial Hospital. His name was being withheld until relatives could be notified.
Kinney told police he had arrived recently from the East Coast and had been living on the streets. His father said in an interview that Kinney had suffered from schizophrenia for many years.
Kinney was arrested after he showed up at San Francisco General Hospital for treatment of burns he allegedly suffered in setting the man on fire. He was expected to be booked on suspicion of murder, arson causing death, possession of flammables and mayhem, authorities said.
Inspector Jeffrey Levin of the police arson detail said investigators had no motive in the attack.
"How could one human being do this to another?'' he said.
A security guard making his rounds on the 200 block of Beale near Howard Street came across the victim engulfed in flames and summoned authorities. By the time police officers and firefighters got there, the attacker had run away.
A homeless woman who said she had been sleeping on the same block and gave her name only as Jane said she awoke to find her blanket on fire and the assailant "waggling his left arm like crazy."
"His arm was on fire at the wrist, and the gas from his arm was dripping on our blanket and lighting it up, so we got up and shook it out," she said. "That's when I saw the guy on fire. He was like a walking flame, screaming. He walked slowly across the street and just stood there, on fire, screaming. It was unreal."
The spattering gas from the attacker's arm also lit the blanket of a third homeless man sleeping nearby, but, like Jane, he managed to snuff the fire before it injured him.
Kinney was found in the women's restroom of the nearby Transbay Terminal at 6:53 a.m. with gauze wrapped around his hand, authorities said.
"He didn't seem to understand us very well and was mumbling," terminal security officer Chris Jones said.
Guards didn't know about the earlier attack and let Kinney go. He walked into San Francisco General about 8:30 a.m. and was arrested at noon.
Homeless people who frequent the Transbay Terminal area said they didn't know the suspect or the victim.
"None of us have ever seen him or the victim around here before, and we've been sleeping in this spot a long time," said Jason Lowe, who was napping on his sleeping bag Tuesday afternoon a few feet from where the burning took place. "The victim just showed up last night, too, and we never managed to get his name."
Kinney's father, Peter Kinney of Lawrence, Mass., said his son had a long history of mental illness and once told police that someone had implanted a microchip in his head.
"He has been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic,'' he said. "He refused to take his medication. He went off the wall. That was two years ago.''
He said his son had been arrested for bizarre behavior before but had never been charged with a crime.
"I have no idea where he goes, what he's up to,'' the elder Kinney said.
He said he had tried to have his son institutionalized but had failed to persuade a court to have him committed.
For all his problems, however, Scott Kinney had never done anything violent, his father said.
"This doesn't sound like it's in character," he said.E-mail the writers at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com and kfagan@sfchronicle.com .
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (2), (1) Jason Lowe and girlfriend Janelle Martin rest under the freeway at the 200 block of Beale Street, where a homeless man was set on fire., (2) A homeless man sleeps sitting up on Beale Street, near where another homeless man was set ablaze. / Photos by Lacy Atkins / The Chronicle
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