At a candlelight vigil for slain social worker Alberto Rangel, some in attendance greeted each other with hugs of support. Some cried. Others bowed their heads in somber silence.
Dozens of community members, coworkers, and friends โ many from the healthcare industry โ held candles and laid flowers in front of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on Sunday evening in Rangelโs memory.
Rangel, 51, died on Saturday after being stabbed by a patient at the hospital’s HIV clinic two days earlier.
Chaplain John Wolff led the group in prayer, describing Rangel as a โdedicated advocate for people,โ and a dedicated member of the fight against HIV/AIDS.
When a former staff member at the HIV clinic Ward 86, who preferred to remain anonymous, first met Rangel, she said he sent her a card thanking her for being his friend and a wonderful person. โHe was a beautiful and kind soul.โ
Jessica Hoopengardner, a nurse at the ward and another friend, described Rangel as โthe most open-hearted, loving, non-judgemental, kindโ person.
Rangelโs alleged killer, 34-year-old Wilfredo Tortolero-Arriechi, was arrested at the scene of the killing and is being held in county jail on charges of murder, assault with a deadly weapon, use of a deadly weapon, and โmayhem.โ
Rangel was attacked on the afternoon of Dec. 4. Tortolero-Arriechi was purportedly a regular patient at Ward 86 and was known and feared by staff there.
Rangel had raised concerns about his alleged attacker three weeks ago, said Hoopengardner. โWe all shouldโve been informed.โ
Tortolero-Arriechi had allegedly made threats on the day of the attack against a doctor at Ward 86.
A sheriffโs deputy was deployed to protect that doctor,ย but staffers have said they were under the impression the deputy would be shadowing Tortolero-Arriechi, not just minding the doctor who had been threatened by him.
An eyewitness to the attack said that the deputy was not within eyeshot of Tortolero-Arriechi when he attacked Rangel in a hallway.ย
Tortolero-Arriechi allegedly stabbed Rangel repeatedly with a five-inch kitchen knife recovered at the scene.
โThis could have been avoided on so many fucking levels,โ said the eyewitness, a colleague of Rangelโs. โWe knew three weeks ago about this patient.โ The healthcare system failed everyone in the unit, the former Ward 86 staff member added. โWeโre the backbone of a vulnerable community and weโre not being protected.โย
Members of the University Professional and Technical Employees union are demanding a full investigation into the circumstances that led up to Rangelโs killing. They are also demanding immediate protections for hospital staff: Increased security and metal detectors in every unit.
Many of the social workers at San Francisco general have been โraising alarms for years about the safety conditions,โ said union co-chair Chey Dean.
โThe way that this country takes care of people is not appropriate,โ said Hoopengarder. โWe need to be repaired with love and compassion, and that is something that Alberto understood.โ
A GoFundMe has been started in honor of Alberto Rangel.
Iโm so sorry for his family and loved ones. I hope that the safety concerns of the people working for this vulnerable population are listened to and not just brushed aside as inconvenient. Additional security and metal detectors are a pretty reasonable request, as well as glass partitions between the social workers and their clients.
The Sheriffโs Dept union seems very ready to leverage this incident to their advantage. I do not think itโs the quantity of law enforcement as much as the quality. As a medical social worker, I try not to call our PD everโฆyou just donโt know who youโll get. I am sure this could happen at my hospital.
I am saddened to learn of Alberto’s murder. He was a beloved colleague with a great sense of humor, an eye for fashion, a heart as big as the grand canyon, a lover of music, and poetry, an artist, a bon vivant with a smile that was infectious and a genuine love for his work and the people he served. He took the idea of public service and public health to heart. He helped a lot of people. Thank Alberto, you will be surely missed
I learned recently that UCSF has a two tier compensation instituted. Those who work within actual UCSF hospitals are paid more to work with much more stable and easy going patients because they can bill for private insurance and medicare while those who work in other community settings, like SFGH, are paid much less because they typically bill medi-cal. Incredible that people like Alberto do work with these much more difficult patients in more dangerous environments and do not receive the same compensation, let alone a type of hazard pay.
I knew Alberto in the 90’s when we worked at a mortgage company. Alberto was new in San Francisco and fresh out of Iowa.
He was always so sweet and kind.
I have run into him off and on through the years and he seemed so refreshingly happy.
What a terrible loss for all who knew him.
So sad, too bad, but social workers like teachers, do the work of God. Since, this guy had priors, why was no one watching him? And even better question how on earth did he get a hold of the knife? At the Food Stamp office, there is a big old sign posted saying:”NO Guns” and they have a metal detector, so why were these things not in place ,on the psych ward, at General?
How tragic .
This demonstates the problem here in SF .
Countless mentally ill persons on the streets and allowed to stay there when they refuse help or services .
Most are under the influence of drugs and harming themselves and others ; yet they are just pushed around .
It is time to remove all impaired persons and place them in appropriate places.
They dont need to be all placed in the tenderloin ,
They need to be placed away from neighborhoods , away from drug dealers and in places that have appropriate levels and training of staff to help them and prevent them from harming others .
Walking in the street here while mentally ill addicts block sidewalks to engage in illegal activity and cannot take care of themselves and are a risk to
All
Of us needs to stop.
The city should invest in a location away from the city where costs are cheaper .
Paying 6k/ month to house addicts and persons here with mental health issues is wrong .
This tragedy must not happen again .
This death is a fault of the city and sherriff failing to ensure and get this situation under control.
Mental health hospitals need to be reopened .
These persons cannot be allowed to be in public .
They endanger all of us .
A question for those who work on this system.
In the courts (either civil or criminal) if there is so much as a hint of an issue with someone, extra security is there, not just in criminal, but in divorce/family cases, a couple of deputies are standing by. And this is after metal detectors.
The system IMHE is very attuned to the threat posed by people who are generically said โnot right in the headโ
I just am flabbergasted that this guy was long recognized as a threat, yet he was allowed to come in, wander around. Seems crazy to me.
Is it a the general anti-law enforcement outlook of many in SF? Is there a fear people will avoid treatment? I just donโt understandโฆ
Sadly one person is dead. City will pay $10+ million. Locking the killer up for life will cost (with trial) another $4+ million.
Just wondering what in /about the public health system allowed it to happen.
He was 31 not 51! Do your research before publishing!
Carly โย
You are mistaken. He was 51. We did our research.
JE