Killed for His Bling

Article written by: Jacob Breinholt
Posted on: July 29, 2009

Is this a sign of the times? All you Mr. T’s out there, you might want to stuff those jewels back in your shirt for now…

In November of 2008, 29 year old Richard Barrett was shot to death after leaving the Hustler Club in North Beach.

This wasn’t the typical drunken, “you were looking at my girl” outside of the club altercation-gone-bad. According to police who have recently made an arrest related to the incident, Barrett’s assailants were specifically after his pendant necklace.

The police account of the incident describes Barrett wearing a diamond encrusted figure of Bamm-Bamm from the Hannah Barbera Cartoon, “The Flintsones.”

San Francisco Police Inspector Robert Lynch said “We know he was targeted because of the medallion he was wearing” and that “The pendant was highly visible.”

According to the report, two men spotted the chain on Barrett, as he was leaving the club. The men approached Barrett, and one of the suspects threw Barrett against the wall, while pulling the chain from around Barrett’s neck. When Barrett tried to run away, one of his assailants shot him in the back. Barrett collapsed in the doorway of a nearby lounge before being transported to the hospital, where he later died from the gunshot wound.

Earlier this week, the police arrested 25 year old Charles Heard in connection with Barrett’s robbery and murder. The police have yet to recover the Bamm-Bamm pendant. Heard was on parole for a conviction of possessing a firearm, while being a felon. When Heard was checking in with his parole officer, he was arrested as a suspect in the Barrett case. Not surprisingly, Heard is also  suspected to be a member of a local gang.

The weapon used to murder Barrett was linked by the police to another killing that took place in Richmond, in 2000. As with the Bamm-Bamm pendant, the weapon has yet to be recovered.

Although, Inspector Lynch asserts that “maybe it was just for kicks,” he also points out that “Bamm-Bamm” is also a slang term used by Colombian drug traffickers, when referring to the drug cocaine.