| San Francisco Police Department Park Station bombing |
|
|---|---|
Brian V. McDonnell, a sergeant with the San Francisco Police Department who received fatal shrapnel wounds |
|
| Location | Golden Gate Park Police Station, 1899 Waller Street, SF |
| Date | February 16, 1970 |
| Weapon(s) | A pipe bomb packed with heavy staples |
| Deaths | 1 |
| Injured | 1 seriously: Robert Fogarty |
The San Francisco Police Department Park Station bombing occurred on February 16, 1970, when a pipe bomb filled with shrapnel detonated on the ledge of a window at the San Francisco Police Department's Golden Gate Park station. [1] Brian V. McDonnell, a police sergeant, was fatally wounded in its blast.[2] Robert Fogarty, another police officer, was severely wounded in his face and legs and was partially blinded.[3] In addition, eight other police officers were wounded.[1]
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "Investigators in the early '70s said the bombing likely was the work of the Weather Underground, and not the Black Liberation Army"[1]
An investigation was reopened in 1999. A San Francisco grand jury looked into the incident, but no indictments followed.[1][4]
In early 2009 conservative advocacy group America's Survival Inc. advocated for a murder charge against Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground. In connection with a press release, the group released a letter from the San Francisco Police Officers Association endorsing an earlier allegation by Larry Grathwohl, a former FBI informant within the Weather Underground, that "there are “irrefutable and compelling reasons” that establish that Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn, are responsible for the bombing." [5] [6]
The case has yet to be solved and remains an active case. [7] [8]