Stopped in Their Tracks

At about 5:30 p.m. on October 1, cops swarmed the grounds outside Balboa Park’s Sixth Avenue bathroom across from St. Paul’s Cathedral. Soon after, a tall, thin man wearing sweatpants, sneakers, and a baseball cap lay face-down on the ground in handcuffs. Officers wearing latex gloves searched the scene, eventually carrying away a plastic evidence bag.

The suspect, who was unshaven and appeared calm but distressed, turned away from a reporter’s camera. Two women dressed in jogging clothes stood over him and chatted with the cops. The man had “exposed himself,” according to one of the police officers. By 6:45, he had been taken away by a waiting police car.