{"id":1496493,"date":"2026-04-15T04:57:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T09:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1496493"},"modified":"2026-04-16T07:53:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:53:02","slug":"attorney-for-suspect-in-attack-at-sam-altmans-home-says-he-was-in-midst-of-mental-health-crisis-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1496493","title":{"rendered":"Attorney for suspect in attack at Sam Altman\u2019s home says he was in midst of ‘mental health crisis’"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 The Texas man accused of trying to kill OpenAI<\/a> CEO Sam Altman by throwing a Molotov cocktail at his San Francisco home was experiencing a mental health crisis and has been overcharged by prosecutors, his public defender said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Daniel Moreno-Gama made his first court appearance on state charges with disheveled hair and wearing an orange jail uniform. The 20-year-old, whose attorney said is autistic, kept his gaze down during the brief hearing and softly answered \u201cyes\u201d when asked by a judge whether he agreed to continue his arraignment. San Francisco Judge Kenneth Wine ordered him held without bail and set his arraignment for May 5.<\/p>\n

Authorities say Moreno-Gama, of Spring, Texas, hurled the incendiary device<\/a> at Altman\u2019s home Friday, setting an exterior gate on fire before fleeing on foot. Less than an hour later, Moreno-Gama went to OpenAI\u2019s headquarters about 3 miles (5 kilometers) away and threatened to burn down the building, they said. They said he traveled to the city from Texas.<\/p>\n

No one was injured at Altman\u2019s home or the company’s offices. San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Diamond Ward called the case a \u201cproperty crime, at best,\u201d and said that prosecutors are pursuing higher charges to curry favor for Altman. Moreno-Gama also faces federal charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unfair and is unjust for the San Francisco district attorney and the federal government to fearmonger and to exploit the mental illness of a vulnerable, young man by turning a vandalism case into an attempted murder, life exposure case to gain support of a billionaire, and to get political points at the expense of true justice for everyone involved,\u201d Ward said.<\/p>\n

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins disputed that he was overcharged, saying Moreno-Gama carried out a \u201ctargeted attack on Mr. Altman\u201d and that prosecutors had evidence to back up the charges. She said prosecutors would act the same whether the victim was a \u201cbillionaire or a CEO or any average San Franciscan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of a victim’s status, they all deserve justice and they all deserve safety,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Moreno-Gama\u2019s parents said in a statement he has never harmed anyone and recently began having mental health issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been trying our best to address these issues and get him effective treatment, and we are very concerned for his well-being,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Authorities said Moreno-Gama, who works part-time at a pizzeria and is attending community college, expressed hatred of artificial intelligence in his writings, describing it as a danger to humanity and warning of \u201cimpending extinction,\u201d according to court filings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not spontaneous. This was planned, targeted and extremely serious,\u201d FBI San Francisco Acting Special Agent in Charge Matt Cobo said during a news conference Monday.<\/p>\n

Moreno-Gama is charged in California state court with two counts of attempted murder and attempted arson. He tried to kill both Altman and a security guard at Altman\u2019s residence, Jenkins alleged. Officials have not said whether Altman was home at the time, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Jenkins said the state charges carry penalties ranging from 19 years to life in prison.<\/p>\n

On Monday morning, FBI agents went to Moreno-Gama\u2019s home in a Houston suburb where they spent several hours before leaving. He has also been charged by federal prosecutors with possession of an unregistered firearm and damage and destruction of property by means of explosives. Those charges carry respective penalties of up to 10 years and 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will treat this as an act of domestic terrorism, and together with our partners, prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law,\u201d U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian said.<\/p>\n

The document in which Moreno-Gama discussed his opposition to AI also made threats against Altman and executives at other AI companies, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I am going to advocate for others to kill and commit crimes, then I must lead by example and show that I am fully sincere in my message,\u201d Moreno-Gama wrote, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

Advocacy groups that have issued grave warnings about AI\u2019s risks to society condemned the violence.<\/p>\n

Anthony Aguirre, president and CEO of the Future of Life Institute, said in a written statement Friday that \u201cviolence and intimidation of any kind have no place in the conversation about the future of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another group, PauseAI, said in a statement that the suspect had no role in the group but joined its forum on the social media platform Discord about two years ago and posted about 34 messages there, none containing explicit calls to violence but one that was flagged as \u201cambiguous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discord said Monday that it has banned Moreno-Gama for \u201coff-platform behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 The Texas man accused of trying to kill OpenAI CEO Sam Altman by throwing a Molotov cocktail at his San Francisco home was experiencing a mental health crisis and has been overcharged by prosecutors, his public defender said Tuesday. Daniel Moreno-Gama made his first court appearance on state charges with disheveled … Continue reading Attorney for suspect in attack at Sam Altman\u2019s home says he was in midst of ‘mental health crisis’<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2851],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1496493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news-archive"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-06 05:06:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1496493"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1496847,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496493\/revisions\/1496847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1496493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1496493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1496493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}