Police arrested a retired dentist suspected of fatally shooting a San Francisco laborer that rented a home from the alleged killer.
Philippe Henri Chagniot, 68, was booked into San Francisco County jail on suspicion of murder charges for the May 17 slaying of Eric Bigone, 58, in the Outer Sunset neighborhood.
The San Francisco Police Department said it was still investigating the incident. Cops said they executed a search warrant at Chagniot’s residence and made the arrest without incident.
Chagniot is accused of killing Bigone outside his home on 46th Avenue, sources told the San Francisco Standard. The home was owned by a family member of Chagniot’s, who was Bigone’s landlord.
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Officers found the victim wounded outside the house at 5:20 a.m. Despite attempts to render aid, Bigone died at the scene, police said.
A police notice said the perpetrator was wearing a beanie and mask and arrived on bicycle. He could be seen on the sidewalk holding a clear plastic bag and a long gun.
Chagniot appeared to have owned his own dental practice and is seen in a 2019 video promoting an oral surgery company.
He and his wife, Barbara Chagniot, were tied into another Bay Area murder case in which a property manager killed his husband-and-wife employers to avoid being discovered for embezzlement.
His wife was a relative of the dead couple, and a Supreme Court docket lists Chagniot as a nephew who was at that crime scene.
Bigone was memorialized by family and friends as a man who turned his life around.
He had been charged with a felony of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in 2004. But his friends told Mission Local he later lived a quiet life, working for the city as a general laborer.
“Eric was no angel when we were young,” wrote a friend on Facebook, “but he more than paid his dues throughout his life.”
A motive for the crime is still unclear.
