A 52-year-old homeless man is accused of demanding the purse of a woman who passed him near Oceanside pier three weeks ago.

The woman was walking near the pier with her daughter when she passed a man who asked, “Can I have a dollar so I can buy some cigarettes?” The woman said she ignored the man and continued walking, but the man pursued her, according to a police investigator.

“I know you got money in that purse,” the man told the woman, according to Oceanside Police Officer Matthew Byrd, who testified at a preliminary hearing this morning.

The beggar persisted, demanding, “Give me that purse, you black bitch!” This caused the woman to scream and run away with her daughter, according to Officer Byrd. Persons on hand intervened and told the man to “leave that woman alone,” the officer told a judge today.

Oceanside Police officers arrived to speak with 52-year-old Calvin Grey Moore. “He said, ‘I didn’t try to take that lady’s purse, I just asked for a dollar to buy a pack of cigarettes,'” according to Officer Byrd.

Public defender Rick Crawford pointed out that his client “made no attempt at actually taking her purse.”

Judge Daniel Goldstein ordered Calvin Grey Moore to face a single charge of attempted robbery, a felony. The judge reduced bail for the defendant from $100,000 to $50,000, and set Moore’s next court date for October 9 in San Diego’s North County Superior Courthouse.

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