Two men arrested in the attempted robbery that gravely injured private detective Jack Palladino outside his home in the Haight last week are expected to face murder charges after the distinguished investigator died Monday.
Lawrence Thomas, 24, and Tyjone Flournoy, 23, have been charged with attempted murder, attempted robbery and other crimes in connection with the attack last Thursday afternoon on Page Street near Masonic Avenue, prosecutors said.
The District Attorney’s Office plans to amend the attempted murder charges to murder after Palladino’s cause of death is formally determined by the Medical Examiner’s Office, according to a spokesperson for District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Palladino, 76, died at a hospital Monday after being taken off life support over the weekend, his family said. The famed private detective was known for representing famous clients including Bill Clinton and Harvey Weinstein.
Witnesses told police Palladino was engaged in a struggle over his camera with a person in the passenger seat of a vehicle. He fell to the ground and suffered a head injury when the vehicle sped away.
Palladino may have “seen or heard something” and rushed out of the house to take pictures of someone engaged in criminal activity when the attack happened, his wife Sandra Sutherland previously told the San Francisco Examiner.
Police later recovered the camera and used its contents to help identify the suspects in the attack, Sutherland said.
Police arrested Thomas, a resident of Pittsburg, on Friday in Bayview-Hunters Point, while Flournoy was taken into custody on Saturday in Reno, Nevada, according to police.
Flournoy was previously arrested but not charged in connection with a fatal shooting in the Tenderloin from December 2019. He was among four suspects arrested in the case but not accused of being the shooter.
Thomas and Flournoy remain in custody at County Jail.
In addition to attempted murder and attempted robbery, prosecutors filed kidnapping, false imprisonment, elder abuse and assault-related charges against them Monday. Neither defendant has been assigned an attorney.
Both men are expected to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon at the Hall of Justice.
mbarba@sfexaminer.com
