A man threw a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home on Friday morning (local time) and also made threats at the company headquarters in the city.
The firm said that the suspect has now been arrested by the San Francisco Police and that no one was injured in the incident.
Molotov cocktail is a crude bomb made of a bottle filled with a flammable liquid (such as gasoline) and usually fitted with a wick (such as a saturated rag) that is ignited just before the bottle is hurled, as defined by Merriam-Webster.
“Early this morning, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman’s home and also made threats at our San Francisco headquarters. Thankfully, no one was hurt,” said Jamie Radice, an OpenAI spokesperson, reported Bloomberg.
“The individual is in custody, and we’re assisting law enforcement with their investigation,” he added, without giving any further details.
Sam Altman has not yet reacted to the incident.
What the police said
A spokesperson of the San Francisco Police Department said that at around 4.12 am on Friday (local time), the offers responded to a fire investigation and there, they learned that “that an unknown male subject threw an incendiary destructive device at a home, causing a fire to an exterior gate.”
The police added that the suspect managed to flee on foot.
Just around an hour later, at 5.07 am (local time), the police responded to another call that came from 1400 block of 3rd Street in San Francisco, which is in vicinity of the headquarters of OpenAI. This time, a 20-year-old man had threatened to burn down a building.
The police found out that the it was the same man who was suspected for the earlier incident and detained him.
“When officers arrived on scene, they recognized the male to be the same suspect from the earlier incident and immediately detained him,” said the SFPD.
(With inputs from Bloomberg)
