A 32-year-old engineer who works for YouTube in San Francisco allegedly attacked his friends and several bystanders on the Fourth of July in an LSD-fueled rampage.
According to a press release by Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, Betai Koffi and several friends rented a house in the Sonoma County town of Bodega Bay in California for the holiday weekend, where the group planned to party for five days. However, plans went awry when the group of friends took LSD and Koffi took seven times as much of the illicit substance as his friends. His massive dose then reportedly set off a bad trip, full of paranoia, chaos, and bullets, before it was contained by authorities.
Koffi’s friends attempted to contain him as he began to show negative effects of the drug, including wild hallucinations and aggression. After breaking free, he allegedly punched a female friend in the chest, stabbed another man in the neck with a pencil, and choked another. He then ran for his car, which he crashed into the rental home’s garage in an attempt to run over another friend trying to intercede.
Fleeing on foot, Koffi ran to a neighbor’s home, where he was confronted by a neighborhood security guard, whom he allegedly stabbed with the metal stake of a landscaping lamp. Koffi then stole the running security vehicle of the incapacitated guard and began speeding toward a man and woman, who was badly injured, walking nearby. He continued erratically driving the truck toward another pair of involved bystanders, badly injuring a second woman with the vehicle.
Police began shooting at the pickup truck as it rammed into a California Highway Patrol vehicle. Koffi was struck by bullets at least three times, though witnesses reporting hearing 10 or more rounds in the confrontation.
Koffi is in critical condition and is expected to face six felony charges including carjacking, assault, and attempted murder. All eight injured parties are expected to recover. Sonoma County Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Spencer Crum told local news station KTVU, “We’re really lucky that none of those victims died in this. Really lucky.”
