A man was stabbed during a confrontation near Dolores Park, where a crowd of Halloween skateboarders were hill-bombing down Dolores Street, according to both police sources and an eyewitness.
At approximately 6:30 p.m., officers responded to a stabbing at 20th and Dolores streets, police said. Officers located a male victim suffering from a possible stab wound and a suspect suffering injuries from a physical altercation, police added.
Both were transported to the hospital with unknown medical conditions, police said.
A witness, who declined to be named, said that his friend got into an argument, and then another person jumped in and stabbed his friend. A fourth person pulled out a gun, and police arrived shortly after, the witness said. The witness estimated that the incident occurred between 6 and 6:30 p.m., in line with the police account.
While a police spokesperson described a “possible stab wound,” both the eyewitness and a second police source were unambiguous about the stabbing.
At 8 p.m., a raucous crowd of at least 200 young people remained on the scene. Most appeared to be adolescents or young adults, skateboards in tow. What appeared to be smoke bombs went off six times between around 8 and 8:30 p.m.
An officer on the scene told Mission Local that, roughly two hours earlier, when the stabbing occurred, there were “not enough cops to do anything.” So, officers evacuated the wounded parties and allowed the party to continue.
No cars attempted to pass through the intersection at 20th and Dolores streets between 8 and 8:30 p.m., and Mission Local saw two employees of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency intercepting traffic at Guerrero and 20th streets and Church and 20th streets. One MTA employee told Mission Local that the surrounding roads were closed off to drivers.
A melee broke out at 8:22 p.m., and a crowd chanted for the two combatants to fight. One was knocked down but appeared to get up. After a minute or so, the crowd lost interest, and the focus returned to the hill-bombing.
People with information are asked to contact the San Francisco Police Department at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and start the message with SFPD.
Crime is trauma and the county offers different services, which can be found here. Victims of violent crime can also contact the Trauma Recovery Center at UCSF.
The SFPD’s data on crime can be found here.
This story will be updated as more information comes to light.
I have beautiful, wonderful memories of living at Guerrero at Cumberland, between 19th & 20th streets for 32 years: 1980-2012; I raised my daughter there.
This is frightening
We have an army of community ambassadors now, how can this be? /s
All the folks recording the fight, not many folks (any) trying to stop it.
Shows what is important.
As someone who has walked through the streets calling out for a assistance, beaten and bloodied by an attack from another woman who weilded a 2×4 in broad daylight, I can tell you that the only thing I received was people telling me to shut up, outright looking the other direction, and even spoke to a meter maid who asked me what I wanted him to do about it! Finally, approximately 4-5 blocks from where I was attacked, a homeless girl stopped me and asked what happened, tracked down a phone & called around until she found my husband & explained what had happened. She then waited/stood guard over me til he arrived since my attacker had followed & taunted me the whole way. That was less than a month after moving to this city. What a welcome, huh? Spring of 2012. So the ppl recording the incident doesn’t surprise me. At least they have evidence recorded…
Violence will continue to increase in the city until people are hold accountable. It’s horrible nowdays that instead of people creating peace, stop violence they encourage it and just record with their cell phones. With the pandemic, people became extremely inhumane!
It’s hard to believe that there were “not enough cops to do anything “ when there were dozens of them in the (nearly empty and quiet) Castro that night milling around with their hands in their pockets. SFPD needs to quit complaining and start doing their jobs.
The Bott’s dots do not work because they are only in one intersection, at Dolores and 20th. There is still enough hill left for the skateboard vandals to endanger their own lives and threaten the general public. By the way, skateboarders are not “socialists”, because they don’t care about the common good or how their actions affect the larger community. They are more like libertarians or Republicans in that regard.
The anarchical socialists are getting exactly the chaos they want. Fortunately, the majority of San Franciscans have had enough of the nonsense, and the pendulum is starting to go back toward center, albeit very slowly so.
Anarchists and socialists are basically opposites, Brian. The cops you probably love so much literally refused to do anything about it and they were on scene when I drove by at 5:45. They blocked the street to encourage the lawlessness. So much for your pendulum theory.
I thought they put Bott’s Dots on Dolores to prevent this. Do they not work?
Joe: The road dots SFMTA installed after the Dolores Hill Bomb event two years ago were a JOKE. Jeffrey Tumlin, the director of SFMTA did the absolute barest minimum to address the neighborhood outrage about this insane event that just keeps happening—because the city does NOTHING to stop it. Tumlin installed one set of road dots up the hill from 20th St. on Dolores, when in fact, the skateboard hooligans start at 20th. How stupid is that??? So in answer to your question: “NO, the road dots are completely useless (by design) because they were installed in the wrong place. The event last nigh is testimony to the fact that SFMTA, and specifically its incompetent director, Jeffrey Tumlin, doesn’t want to ruin the fun for the skateboard mafia. Nice to have public officials who care more about the rights of skateboarders to have fun at our expense than the safety of the public. “Vision Zero??? SFMTA’s goal of zero pedestrian deaths in SF??? What a cruel joke.