Berkeley police are investigating the death of a woman whose body was found Monday evening in the Berkeley Marina. (File)
BERKELEY — A 24-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder, mayhem, and elder abuse for allegedly dousing a 68-year-old man’s head in gasoline and setting it on fire in an attack with no apparent motive, court records show.
Bradley Edward Marcrum, who has addresses listed in Berkeley and Los Angeles, was charged Thursday in connection with the June 29 attack. The victim was hospitalized with serious burns, required skin grafts and surgery, but somehow survived the attack, authorities said.
The day before the attack, Marcrum was placed in a mental health hold in San Francisco after he threatened to jump off a building. He was briefly hospitalized but released after a psychological evaluation determined he wasn’t a threat to himself or others, according to authorities.
The gasoline attack happened around 8 p.m. According to police, the 68-year-old man was sitting on a small brick wall near University Avenue and Bonar Street when Marcrum allegedly walked up, punched him twice, and poured gasoline on his head.
The man told police that the next thing he knew, his head was on fire. Passers-by helped extinguish the blaze and called 9-1-1, police said.
Marcrum was identified as a suspect because surveillance footage from a nearby Shell gas station showed him purchasing $10 of gasoline and putting it into a red one-gallon container, while wearing clothes similar to those described by eyewitnesses to the attack, police said. He was also identified by a distinctive face tattoo, authorities said,
He was arrested July 5 on suspicion of evading BART fare in Dublin, and BART officers realized he was a suspect in the gasoline attack. Prosecutors charged Marcrum the next day, court records show.
Police say the victim was unable to identify Marcrum from a photo lineup, due to his injuries.
Marcrum has pending charges related to an April 8 incident where he allegedly brandished a stick and threatened to hit a man in Berkeley, court records show. When he was arrested in that incident, police discovered he had an active warrant for vandalism in Long Beach.
Originally published at Nate Gartrell