SAN FRANCISCO—On Sunday, May 17 at approximately 5 a.m., Philippe Chagniot, 68, a former San Francisco dentist whose license expired in 2024, set fire to the car of his 58-year-old tenant, Eric Paul Bigone, intending to lure him outside his apartment. Video captured the suspect arriving at the crime scene by bicycle wearing a mask and armed with a long gun.
At 5:21 a.m., officers from the San Francisco Police Department Taraval District Police Station were dispatched to a shooting on the 2,500 block of 46th Avenue near Ulloa Street where they found Bigone sustained close-range gunshot wounds. Officers and paramedics attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but Bigone was declared dead at the scene.
Chagniot left the scene of the shooting, and the case was turned over to the San Francisco Police Department Homicide Unit. From Sunday, May 17 to Tuesday, May 26, the team investigated by using neighborhood security footage and tracking Chagniot’s movements.
They were trying to figure out a motive behind the landlord-tenant dispute. Before the murder, Bigone told friends that Chagniot wanted to sell the home he occupied but did not wish to pay the required relocation fees.
The SFPD had reasonable cause to arrest Chagniot on Wednesday, May 27, and located and apprehended him without any further trouble. After his arrest, there was a court approved search warrant to search Chagniot’s residence, where they seized piles of evidence that connected him to his deceased tenant’s murder.
The SFPD was able to find the choice of weapon used at the time of the crime. On May 28, the San Francisco County Jail booked Chagniot, charging him with murder (187(a) Penal Code).
