Seattle prolific offender threatens gay men with syringe, quickly released from jail
Mar 29, 2020, 7:56 PM | Updated: Oct 8, 2024, 7:14 am
Francisco Calderon is a Seattle prolific offender. (KIRO 7, DOC image)
(KIRO 7, DOC image)
A bigoted Seattle prolific offender was quickly released after threatening to stab two gay men with a syringe and calling a black female the n-word. This comes after King County announced they wouldn’t book most misdemeanor charges, and jails have let suspects out over coronavirus concerns. (Updated with photos at the end of story.)
Francisco Calderon has become the face of Seattle’s prolific offenders problem, with previous convictions for sucker-punching a passer-by. After release from jail, he threw coffee in the face of a toddler.
City Attorney Pete Holmes keeps giving the Seattle prolific offender a chance, even condemning a judge for putting Calderon in jail. Meanwhile, Calderon keeps re-offending with at least 75 convictions to his name. At this point, it’s willful to keep him out of jail.
Seattle prolific offender threatens two men
Seattle Police responded to a call of a male suspect “attempting to stab” two gay men with a syringe in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood on the evening of March 26.
The friends were walking around Broadway Ave when Calderon was “shouting and making threats” to a random passersby.
The incident report says Calderon started to follow them, got physically between them and push them apart, telling them that they should not be married (the police report simply says they were two friends). According to the report:
He also told them he could knock them out with one punch. Calderon had his hands balled up into fists. They later saw that he had an uncapped syringe in his hand.
[Victim 1] and [Victim 2] crossed the street to avoid Calderon. Calderon followed them but then stopped as he saw a vehicle in the roadway. He attempted to open this vehicle’s door.
Calderon shouted slurs
The driver, a black woman, parked her car and ran to safety in a restaurant nearby. Calderon, according to the report, pointed at her from the street, calling her “n***** girl” several times.
While this happened, a King County Metro bus driver had witnessed the crime. He reported it to police who arrived to arrest Calderon.
Calderon was on meth at time
When Calderon was taken into custody, officers found a small bag of meth in the Seattle prolific offender’s front sweatshirt pocket.
“My brother is severely mentally ill, and while he does use drugs and has a history of drug use, that’s not the core of the problem,” Calderon’s sister Anna told KIRO Radio in 2019. “The core of the problem is that he is mentally ill.”
Quickly released
Calderon was booked into jail just before 11 p.m. on Thursday March 26. He wouldn’t even spend a full day in jail. Calderon was released at 1 p.m. on Friday afternoon.
Though he was originally booked for felonies, a SPD spokesperson tells me that a “detective reviewed the case this morning, and based on the facts, referred it to the Law Department for misdemeanor charges.”
Last week, we learned that most misdemeanor charges would be arrested but not be booked into jail over coronavirus concerns. At the time, I noted that this policy poses the biggest danger as it relates to prolific offenders. Thanks to Seattle’s soft-on-crime approach, oftentimes the only time we’re safe from Seattle prolific offenders is the short amount of time they spend in jail, between convictions.
I asked if this release was a result of the new policy but a jail spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
An update.
One of the victims reached out to me and he shared photos of Calderon. Imagine Calderon, syringe in hand, following you as you’re walking around the city.
Seattle prolific offender with 75 convictions:
-Threatened gay men with syringe.✅
-Told men they shouldn't be married.✅
-Tried to break into car.✅
-Called woman n-word.✅
-Quickly released after arrest.✅🚨READ: https://t.co/pPCNbY48eF
Photo taken by victim shows syringe. pic.twitter.com/XoGnp22APM
— (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) March 30, 2020
Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3-6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow @JasonRantz on Twitter.
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