The man who set fire to Sam Altman’s residence was also carrying an “assassination list” of AI executives.
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The man who set fire to Sam Altman’s residence was also carrying an “assassination list” of AI executives.
The prosecution stated that if evidence shows their actions were motivated by the intent to influence public policy, they will be charged with domestic terrorism.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Kuli, TechFlow
TechFlow Intro: Daniel Moreno-Gama, a 20-year-old man from Texas, has been charged with attempted murder and arson, among other federal and state charges, for throwing an incendiary device at the San Francisco residence of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Police recovered a document titled “Your Last Warning” from his person, listing the names and addresses of multiple AI company CEOs and investors. Prosecutors stated that if evidence shows his actions were intended to influence public policy, he will be charged under domestic terrorism statutes.
Image: Surveillance footage released by the U.S. Department of Justice showing the suspect throwing an incendiary device at Sam’s home
In the early hours of April 10—around 4 a.m.—Moreno-Gama threw a homemade incendiary device outside Altman’s residence in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood, igniting the exterior metal gate before fleeing on foot. Less than an hour later, he appeared approximately three miles away at OpenAI’s headquarters, where he smashed the glass entrance door with a chair and told security personnel he had come to “burn down the building and kill everyone inside.” San Francisco police arrested him on-site and found incendiary devices, a container of kerosene, a lighter, and a three-part document in his possession.
This incident is the latest manifestation of escalating security concerns within the AI industry. Matt Cobo, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s San Francisco Field Office, stated bluntly at Monday’s press conference that this was “not a spontaneous act, but a planned, targeted, and extremely serious one.”
Image: After igniting the residence, the suspect attempted to smash OpenAI’s main entrance door
Document Contents Revealed: Calls for Killing AI CEOs, Lists Multiple Names and Addresses
According to a U.S. Department of Justice press release dated April 13, the first section of the document carried by Moreno-Gama was titled “Your Last Warning,” which opposed AI and advocated killing AI company CEOs and their investors, accompanied by names and addresses purportedly belonging to several CEOs and investors.
In the document, Moreno-Gama admitted to having “killed/attempted to kill” Altman. The second section, titled “More Words on Our Impending Extinction,” elaborated on his belief that AI poses an existential threat to humanity.
The document concluded with a letter addressed to Altman stating, “If you miraculously survive, I will regard it as divine will, granting you the chance to redeem yourself.” On the same day, Moreno-Gama also emailed a version of the document to his former college in Texas. According to CNN’s reporting citing FBI sources, the institution is Lone Star College in Montgomery County, Texas.
Per an investigation by the SF Examiner, Moreno-Gama had already been posting anti-AI content on Instagram and Substack as early as summer 2024. His Instagram account posted in December: “If we don’t act soon, we’ll die—and I’m absolutely certain of it.” In January, an article he published on Substack described AI company CEOs as “likely antisocial or psychopathic,” and referred to Altman as “repeatedly reported to be a pathological liar.”
Altman Responds with Lengthy Post: “I Underestimated the Power of Language and Narrative”
Hours after the attack, Altman posted a photo of his husband and young son on his personal blog, writing: “We usually value our privacy highly, but this time I’m sharing a photo in hopes of deterring the next person who might consider throwing an incendiary device at our home.”
In his blog post, Altman candidly acknowledged, “A few days ago, a provocative article about me was published” (referring to a recent in-depth investigative piece in The New Yorker). Someone had warned him that the article appeared amid heightened public anxiety about AI, potentially increasing his personal risk. “I brushed off that warning. Now I wake up in the middle of the night, realizing I underestimated the power of language and narrative.”
Altman also expressed understanding of anti-technology sentiment, calling fears and anxieties about AI “legitimate,” while urging all parties to “lower the intensity of rhetoric and tactics.”
In its official statement, OpenAI called for resolving AI-related controversies “through democratic processes,” welcomed “good-faith debate,” but affirmed that “violence has no place in our democratic system.”
Residence Targeted Again by Gunfire Two Days Later, Escalating Security Crisis for Silicon Valley Executives
Just two days after the incendiary device attack, Altman’s residence came under fire once more.
According to a San Francisco Police Department notification, officers responded around 2:56 a.m. on April 12 to reports of possible gunfire in the Russian Hill neighborhood. As cited by the SF Standard in initial police reports, a Honda sedan stopped in front of Altman’s residence, and the passenger in the front seat extended their arm out the window and fired a single shot toward the house. According to Newsweek, police subsequently arrested 25-year-old Amanda Tom and 23-year-old Muhamad Tarik Hussein and recovered three firearms from their residence. Both individuals were charged with “reckless discharge of a firearm.”
An OpenAI spokesperson told Newsweek that the shooting incident was unrelated to Altman and that there was no indication his residence had been specifically targeted. However, a notable detail emerged: per reporting by the SF Standard, Hussein’s father resides in Spring, Texas—and Moreno-Gama’s registered address is also in Spring, Texas. Police have not yet confirmed whether any connection exists between the two incidents.
Earlier, on December 4, 2024, Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, was fatally shot in New York—an incident that triggered widespread public discussion about executive safety.
San Francisco District Attorney Jenkins criticized what she termed “inflammatory rhetoric” regarding AI’s potential impacts during her press conference, suggesting a causal link between increasingly radicalized public discourse and violent acts targeting technology leaders.
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