Hate crime arrest after threats at Berkeley school playground
David Celio "repeatedly shouted … slurs and threatened the children" through the fence, officials said.
A homeless man who used anti-Black slurs and threatened children at a Berkeley school playground Saturday has been arrested, police report.
The incident happened at Malcolm X Elementary in South Berkeley at about 8:30 p.m., Berkeley police said in response to a Scanner inquiry.
According to police, the man walked up to a group of children playing and directed racial slurs at them through the fence before making threats of violence.
He "repeatedly shouted the slurs and threatened the children," officials said.
David Celio. BPD
Police found 38-year-old David Celio nearby and arrested him just before 9:15 p.m., according to booking records.
He was arrested on suspicion of a hate crime and child abuse, both misdemeanors, booking records show.
Celio has no charged criminal cases in Alameda County but he was arrested by UC Berkeley police on a warrant in May, public records show, in addition to several other arrests since 2025.
He is being held at Berkeley Jail on $10,000 bail and is scheduled for arraignment Wednesday, according to booking records.
As of March, Berkeley had received at least 16 hate crime reports this year, with anti-Black hate crimes making up the largest percentage, at 29%, followed by homophobic hate crimes, at 18%.
A map of Berkeley hate crimes from January through March 2026 along with their categories. BPD Transparency Hub
