Once a promising athletics star now threatens to kill and kidnap children in San Francisco for days

A once-promising college track star who is now homeless was allowed to roam the streets of San Francisco freely for several years and threaten to kill young children – despite a long criminal record, terrified parents claim.

Kim Ann Andrews, 36, is known for hurling vile insults and threatening to kidnap and even slit children's throats in several upscale neighborhoods near the famous Golden Gate Park, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Police records show that she has been arrested at least six times this year alone for allegedly harassing families and making vile threats.

However, Andrews was released each time, allowing her to return to the streets and continue her allegedly problematic behavior, according to her parents.

“It's been four to five years and nothing has happened,” one mother, Jenna Palefsky, told the outlet after several arguments with Andrews.

“She's been given unlimited second chances. Even though she's been in and out of the system, she keeps getting released onto the streets.”

A group of annoyed parents have been monitoring Andrews' behavior since 2020 – putting up flyers in her neighborhood and tracking police reports filed against her on a now-defunct website called “SF Safe Playgrounds.”

The group's census shows that at least 40 reports have been filed against them with the police in recent years.

Since 2020, she has also been arrested and jailed dozens of times for assault, trespassing, robbery, shoplifting and assault on officers, records show.

However, locals claim they have noticed a rapid decline in cases in Andrews this year and a subsequent increase in the number of disturbing incidents involving children and their parents.

On Tuesday, the police finally issued an arrest warrant against her.

The warrant was issued a month after Andrews was last arrested – and subsequently released while prosecutors built the case – for allegedly threatening a mother and her toddler in a frightening incident in Golden Gate Park.

During this ordeal, Andrews allegedly held a lighter to a can of Lysol and screamed at the two: “I'm going to kill you.”

She was accused of making criminal threats and endangering a child.

Other police reports against her mention an incident in which Andrews spat on a heavily pregnant woman and screamed in a rage: “I hope your baby dies.”

She also allegedly once chased a woman and her dog down the street, then formed a gun with her hand and said: “I was sent here to kill you.”

The public defender representing Andrews following her recent arrest said they are “working to get her the support she needs.”

“Ms. Andrews is a kind person who has experienced homelessness,” said attorney Charlie Dickson, adding that she “needs and deserves care and compassion, not incarceration.”

David Burke, a liaison with the San Francisco Police Department, acknowledged that there are limits to the help.

“There have been several attempts to get her into a shelter or to get a psychiatric evaluation – she doesn't want that and we can't force her to do that,” Burke said.

It was not immediately clear how or when Andrews ended up on the streets of San Francisco.

Public records show she grew up in Pennsylvania and Southern California.

As a teenager, Andrews was a star athlete at Torrey Pines High School near San Diego before competing in track and field for two years at the University of California, San Diego.

Andrews, who once wrote in a college profile that she wanted to become a psychiatrist, dropped out before completing her degree in biochemistry and cell biology.

Her father, Dr. Philip Andrews, was a respected computer scientist at the college but died in 2011, presumably of a heart attack, according to an online obituary.

Records show Andrew's mother, Kathleen, still lives in the family's $1 million home in Ramona, California.

She is said to have four siblings.