San Francisco art gallery owner arrested for spraying homeless woman with hose

The owner of a downtown San Francisco art gallery was taken into custody Wednesday video for mobile phone showed him deliberately spraying a homeless woman with a hose, sparking outrage and condemnation.

An arrest warrant was issued for Collier Gwin on Wednesday for disorderly conduct, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced in a statement.

CBS San Francisco captured footage of Gwynn taken into custody Wednesday afternoon outside his gallery.

“The alleged assault of a member of our community who is not at home is completely unacceptable. Mr. Gwynn will face the appropriate consequences for his actions,” Jenkins said in a statement.

The incident took place on January 9, according to the traffic police. A video posted on social media shows a man spraying water on a homeless woman lying on the sidewalk for several seconds.

In an interview with CBS San Francisco last week, Gwynn admitted to being the man in the video. Gwynn owns the Foster Gwynn gallery in the city’s financial district, CBS San Francisco reports, and the incident happened just steps from his gallery.

“What they saw is very unfortunate,” he told CBS San Francisco last week. “I feel terrible, not just because I want to get out of trouble or anything like that, but because I would have gone to great lengths to help this woman.”

In a conversation with journalists on January 13, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the incident reminded her of how civil rights protesters were treated in the 1960s.

“When I saw it, all I could think about was what happened during the civil rights movement,” Breed said. “Unfortunately, at a time when African Americans were fighting for our rights to be considered equal in this country. Even then, law enforcement and others used water hoses to stop the protesters. And it just takes us back, unfortunately, to that time. And no other human being should be able to do that to any other human being, period. In my opinion, this is an attack.”

If convicted as charged, Gwin faces a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a $2,000 fine, prosecutors said.

Since the video went viral, the victim has been receiving care from the San Francisco Health Department, CBS San Francisco reports.