A San Francisco private investigator who worked for the Black Panthers, Bill Clinton and other well-known figures is on life-support devices after being seriously injured during an attempted theft, his family and officials said on Sunday.
Jack Palladino, 76, fell on the sidewalk and suffered a life-threatening head injury after someone jumped out of a car and tried to steal his camera on Thursday afternoon, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing police, witnesses and stepson Palladino, Nick Chapman.
A grandson, Ash Ivanov, confirmed on Sunday that the attempted theft took place in the Haight-Ashbury district, where Palladino lives. The Chronicle said it was not expected to survive.
The San Francisco Police Department said in a statement that two suspects, Lawrence Thomas, 24, and Tyjone Flournoy, 23, were arrested on suspicion of attempted theft, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon and other crimes.
It was not immediately clear whether they have lawyers.
The Associated Press reported that Palladino’s career began in the 1970s after he graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and was hired by the family of the heiress of the newspaper Patty Hearst to investigate his kidnapping by leftist militants.
He later worked for Black Panther leader Huey Newton in Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and Courtney Love, the AP reported. The Chronicle reported that Harvey Weinstein also hired Palladino to try to suppress allegations of sexual misconduct.