San Francisco police searching for brazen home invasion suspect

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Police are searching for a suspect accused of attacking a resident after breaking into his home in the Sunset District last Monday morning.

In YouTube released by the San Francisco Police Department, Bill Oxidean is seen being attacked inside his own garage by a man in a grey hoodie, but he fought back.

Some residents ABC7 News spoke with said there have been several recent break-ins in the area. Some said said the neighborhood is close to Golden Gate Park, so they do occasionally have transients come into the area and try to get into garages and backyards.

The victim was able to wrestle the gun away from the suspect. "He came at me with the gun, the gun was out, the gun was full force," Bill Oxidean said.

In the video, Oxidean and his attacker are seen wrestling, with a struggle continuing for several minutes. Oxidean said he was determined to pry the gun out of the suspect's hands. "If you can see, I'm reaching for the gun, immediately the first thing I wanted is control of the weapon," Oxidean said.

In the end, Oxidean got the gun and aimed it at his attacker, but couldn't shoot.

According to police, there was no clip in the gun.

Neighbors said there have been a lot of garage break-ins in the neighborhood. "We've had a number of incidents where people come in possibly from the park, try gates, try garages and take bicycles. That's been the biggest issue we've had," neighborhood watch block captain John Zwolinski said.

Another neighbor who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for his family's safety said he recently had a prowler in his garage. "We had somebody wander into our garage when the garage door was left open and he was rummaging through our downstairs unit. I walked in and caught him and then he took off," one man said.

Police said a violent attack like this one is very unusual. They want to track down the person in the surveillance video as quickly as possible and are asking the public for help in identifying the suspect.

No suspect description was immediately available, but police said he had dread locks.

Anyone with additional information is asked to call the San Francisco Police Department's anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444.