Deputy shoots San Francisco man suspected in drug-fueled Bodega Bay rampage that injured 8

A San Francisco man staying in a Bodega Bay vacation rental home went on a drug-fueled rampage Thursday night, stabbing a security guard and intentionally striking three pedestrians with a stolen pickup truck before he was shot by a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy, authorities said Friday.

In all, Betai Koffi, 32, injured eight people prior to the shooting, including four of five longtime friends sharing a rental home with him for the Fourth of July holiday, a Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office news release said.

The rampage followed a day of drug use for Koffi, authorities said, and played out over just 15 minutes after 8 p.m. It began at the Bodega Harbour vacation home and spilled out onto neighborhood streets, where the security guard and three strangers were injured by Koffi before he was stopped in a volley of gunfire from the deputy, authorities said.

“He was driving through the neighborhood and ran over several pedestrians who were just walking and enjoying the evening,” Santa Rosa Police Capt. John Cregan said.

Koffi was hit by at least three rounds fired by the deputy through the windshield of the stolen pickup, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Authorities were not able to say definitely Friday how many rounds the deputy fired.

One of two women hit by the truck remained hospitalized with serious but not life-threatening injuries, the Sheriff’s Office said. The security guard was treated and released on Thursday night. A third pedestrian, a man hit in the arm, was treated at the scene.

Koffi, identified on his LinkedIn page as a software engineer at YouTube, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and carjacking. He was in critical condition Friday afternoon at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

The outbreak of violence occurred in Bodega Bay’s largest residential subdivision, a mix of more than 700 owner-occupied and vacation rental homes. It came just before sundown on a July 4 that for Koffi involved several doses of LSD taken throughout the day, starting at noon, authorities said.

By evening, he had turned aggressive and “delusional,” the Sheriff’s Office reported.

One of the friends called police to the Swan Drive home at 8:07 p.m. Attempts to keep Koffi from leaving the home had led him to punch, stab with a pencil and choke several of them, the person reported. He then crashed a rental car into the home’s garage and took off on foot.

A security guard working in the neighborhood was the first to confront Koffi minutes after the emergency call. The guard encountered him several doors down from the Swan Drive rental and was stabbed by him in the chest with the metal end of a garden light, authorities said. The guard’s employer reported the assault at 8:19 p.m.

Koffi made off with the man’s pickup, which was unlocked and running amid the assault, and soon after hit a man and a woman walking together in the neighborhood, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The woman was seriously injured while the man was struck in the arm.

Koffi then drove off the road and after another man and woman who were walking on a bluff, the Sheriff’s Office said. He aimed the truck at the woman and hit her, causing significant injuries, authorities said.