A San Francisco art gallery owner who was caught on video spraying a homeless woman with a hose is speaking out on the incident after he sparked outrage, CBS Bay Area reports.
Collier Gwin, owner and operator of Foster Gwin Gallery, can be seen casually drenching the woman as she sat on the sidewalk. In an interview with local news outlet KPIX, Gwin said that his actions are "very regrettable."
"I feel awful, not just because I want to get out of trouble, or something like that, but because I'd put a tremendous amount of effort into helping this woman on the street," he said.
Gwin claims he only doused the woman after repeated failed attempts to get her help. He also claimed that she often knocks over trash cans and scares off his clients.
"I'm very, very sorry, I'm not going to defend myself, I'm not going to, because I can't defend that," he said.
"I said she needs psychiatric help," Gwin said. "You can tell, she's pulling her hair, she's screaming, she's talking in tongues, you can't understand anything she says, she's throwing food everywhere."
"I've been down here 40 years. I've seen tons of homeless people, we've helped the ones that we could, and I have not had any issues with people," he said. "But in this case, I was very upset, that the city could not help, and their hands are tied too."
Watch CBS Bay Area's report below or at this link.
Widespread outrage; Video captures art gallery owner spraying a homeless woman with a garden hosewww.youtube.com
