COSTCO ASIAN ASSAULT – suspect in court three years after horror attack on elderly couple at SF store
One of a duo accused of a brutal robbery and beat down of an elderly Asian couple shopping at San Francisco’s Costco, the day after a gunpoint robbery of another Asian man, will appear in a city courtroom this week – nearly three years after the incident.
Prosecutors say Monzell McDuffie robbed the couple in the parking garage of Costco on 10th Street on the morning of December 12 2023.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, he leaped from a stolen Toyota, punched the 74 year old woman and her 77 year old husband, who bravely sought to protect his wife, and took items including a wallet and purse containing hundreds of dollars in cash.
The woman fell to the ground in the attack and sustained injuries to her face, head and leg. Both victims spoke to SFPD investigators in Cantonese.
The driver of the Toyota, named by investigators as Tamarkus Killensworth, then drove the pair away. The car was later found in Alameda.
McDuffie, 21, had absconded from a young offenders camp five days before the robberies. A month earlier Oakland PD had arrested him in connection with a shooting.
It quickly became apparent that the stolen Toyota had been involved in a robbery in Alameda the day before – during which a smartly dressed middle-aged Asian man had a gun pointed at him.
Prosecutors say that pair was also McDuffie and Killensworth, an identification aided by footage retrieved from ‘Watchtower’ cameras at the Bernal Dwellings projects on Cesar Chavez Street on the morning of the Costco robbery, showing two unmasked suspects with the stolen Toyota.
“I conducted a computer workup of McDuffie,” wrote SFPD Sgt Kyle Wren in the affidavit, “which showed a lengthy criminal history with prior arrests for robbery, battery, burglary, carjacking, firearms related offenses, aggravated assault and gang related offenses among others.”
He was convicted of robbery in 2019 and firearms possession in 2025, for which he received a 16-month state prison term from which he was released earlier this year, apparently prompting his prosecution in this case.
According to Oakland Police, then 17-year-old McDuffie was seen throwing away a pistol after he and an accomplice fled a jewelry store in the aftermath of another robbery on August 18 2022.
East Bay Police say the suspects are members of the Baby Benji Gang.
McDuffie, who has pleaded not guilty to five felony charges including robbery and aggravated assault, will appear Friday in department 18 of San Francisco Hall of Justice for a pre-hearing conference. His preliminary hearing, at which a judge will determine if the evidence is sufficient to send the case to trial, is scheduled for October 20.
Killensworth is presently in custody in Alameda County.
The case continues.
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