SF bar owner charged with assault, robbery after alleged parking space dispute

The owner of two Haight-Ashbury bars was arrested Saturday after allegedly attacking the employee of a neighboring business with a baseball bat the previous night, following a clash over a parking spot.

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Cyril Hackett, the owner of Mad Dog in the Fog and Kezar Pub, is currently in custody on suspicion of second-degree robbery and assault with a deadly weapon that was not a firearm, according to the San Francisco County jail records. Hackett’s arrest was first reported by the San Francisco Standard.

Employees of Further, a clothing shop located on the same Haight Street block as Mad Dog in the Fog, told KNTV-TV that earlier on Friday, a store employee got into a confrontation with Hackett when they both tried to park in the same spot in front of Further.

A portion of the argument was caught on cellphone footage obtained by the Standard. The two were in a standoff when a friend of the Further employee took the parking spot, the outlet said.

Later that evening, security camera footage obtained by the Standard showed a man walking into the store with a baseball bat. The footage shows the man, who the outlet reported “looks like Hackett,” hitting something with the bat and grabbing clothing from a rack before an employee chases him from the shop.

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A witness told KNTV-TV that Hackett then allegedly hit the Further employee who was involved in the original confrontation with the bat. 

“He hit Drew in the knee and Drew started limping, told me to call 911,” the witness told the outlet.

The San Francisco Police Department was dispatched to Further around 9 p.m. “regarding a person with a baseball bat” and assault, the department said. Hackett was located at “another business,” and there was enough probable cause to arrest him, police said. Police said Hackett has not yet been assigned a hearing date.