SF District Attorney to Charge Man Suspected of Killing Urban Alchemy Employee With Shotgun Blast | KQED

""Our practitioners serve some of the most tough neighborhoods impacted by addiction, poverty, homelessness and crime in San Francisco," he said. "They are trained with their lived experience ... to bring more peace, safety and cleanliness on the streets. It's an unfortunate reality that, yes, we do experience hate and sometimes violence in the line of work that we do.""

"Alexander was rushed to the hospital after the shooting and received treatment for multiple days before he passed away Tuesday, Montejano said. Bowen was arrested shortly after the shooting and has remained in custody since. After Alexander's death, SFPD said it was working with investigators to update the charges against him to reflect the murder. The shooting comes at an inflection point for Urban Alchemy."

"San Francisco first contracted with a predecessor of the nonprofit, Hunters Point Family, then led by Urban Alchemy's Executive Director, Dr. Lena Miller, in 2014. At the time, it was tasked with operating and cleaning public toilets throughout the city overnight. Since its founding in 2018, Urban Alchemy's responsibilities have steadily mounted, from stationing practitioners during daytime hours downtown to dissuade public drug use and clean up streets to operating safe RV parking sites and homeless shelters."

Alexander was rushed to the hospital after the shooting, received treatment for multiple days, and died Tuesday. Bowen was arrested shortly after the shooting and has remained in custody; SFPD said it was working with investigators to update charges to reflect murder. San Francisco first contracted with a predecessor organization in 2014 to operate and clean overnight public toilets. Since its founding in 2018, Urban Alchemy expanded duties to daytime street outreach, safe RV parking sites and homeless shelters and grew to nine cities in six states. The organization received praise and a Stanford study linked practitioner presence to crime reductions, but it also faced criticism for overspending, management struggles and employee misconduct and lost Bay Area Rapid Transit attendant contracts in April.

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