The social worker who was stabbed repeatedly in the neck by a patient at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on Thursday has succumbed to their injuries, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
The victim’s identity was not immediately released by the San Francisco medical examiner’s office, but they were in critical condition for about 48 hours, and died on Saturday.
The alleged attacker, Wilfredo Tortolero Arriechi, was arrested by police officers following the stabbing. He was booked into jail at 10:47 p.m. on Dec. 4 on charges of murder, assault with a deadly weapon, use of a deadly weapon, and “mayhem.”
He is being held without the possibility of bail.
Tortolero Arriechi, 34, was known to hospital staff, and a regular patient at Ward 86, the hospital’s HIV clinic, where the stabbing took place, according to an eyewitness to the stabbing. He was, allegedly, a known and feared presence at the clinic.
“This could have been avoided on so many fucking levels,” the eyewitness told Mission Local. “We knew three weeks ago about this patient.”
During an all-staff meeting for the Department of Public Health on Friday, San Francisco General Hospital CEO Susan Ehrlich called the incident “heartbreaking.” People are angry, she said, everyone is affected, and staff “want to do everything we can so it doesn’t happen again.”
A review of the incident was forthcoming, Erlich said at the meeting, and two of the hospital’s buildings would be shut down to a single entrance starting this weekend. A security guard would use a metal wand on those coming in.
“We will make real, material changes in response” to the incident, she said, not only at San Francisco General, but at community clinics, Laguna Honda, and other sites.
A sheriff’s deputy had already been assigned to protect a doctor at the ward at the time of the stabbing, according to the sheriff’s department.
But an eyewitness said the deputy was not focused on the alleged attacker when the man attacked the social worker. The eyewitness said they leaped in and pulled Tortolero Arriechi off of their colleague.
A sheriff’s spokesperson said the deputy “followed all required procedures,” and had been instructed to shadow the doctor, rather than mind the patient who had made threats.
“He was onsite to ensure the doctor’s safety, remained on the Ward after an initial search for the subject, and when he heard a commotion in the hallway, immediately responded,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.
“Upon witnessing the assault in progress, he intervened without hesitation, detained the subject, and secured the scene. His quick actions allowed medical staff to begin life-saving measures for the victim without delay.”
The San Francisco Police Department’s homicide unit is leading the investigation into the stabbing. If deemed a homicide, it would be San Francisco’s 27th of the year, down from 33 homicides at this time last year, according to department crime data.
Additional reporting by Sara Miles.
The HIV clinic is in close proximity to the methadone clinic, the hummingbird program, and the behavioral health center (which has two floors that are a residential units, and allow patients to come and go freely). None of these have metal detectors. Sometimes they get one sheriff deputy stationed – SOMETIMES.
Potrero St is open drug use all day.
I’ll second Samantha regarding the open air drug use. Junkies have essentially taken over the bus stop at 21st and Potrero, often surrounding it in mounds of trash and used drug paraphernalia.
This is horrible news and I hope that the murderer faces accountability for his actions.
I can’t begrudge the physicians, therapists and staff at Ward 86 if they were to demand stronger security, including metal detectors at all building entrances and an increased police presence inside the building. And to insist on drug testing of the clients with the right to refuse service to those who test positive for crystal meth or other substances that cause psychotic episodes.
It’s not reasonable to expect these healthcare workers to have to deal with potentially aggressive and armed clients for whom deescalation strategies may not always be successful.
So are we ignoring the deployed deputy that didn’t do the job?
The moral rot runs deeper.
This article is about a stabbing that was probably preventable and someone didn’t do their job.
Change the topic if you want.
NP did you miss the part where the security was assigned to the threatened physician not the patient? Agree this should be evaluated but please stop
Making up a new narrative.
Read articles Brandon.
This is murder. Cold blooded murder of a bright and beautiful soul.
For too long, a loud majority of us in San Francisco have been screaming at this state’s and city’s tolerance of crime, chaos, and Laissez Faire attitude to the destruction of the mental health infrastructure.
Now it has come to a head. The same extremist pathology that tells us we must accept drug dealing on the streets, mental health breakdowns in front of schools, nonprofits getting rich off the system and buying our politicians, “harm reduction,” the City CRIME Family, defunding police, and a do-nothing criminal justice system…. Has led us to this. Some of the folks who read this will downvote me and I’m completely fine with it, because you people need hard truth tea.
The system failed the social workers at SF General. It fails the working class of the Mission. It fails NORMAL, law-abiding San Franciscans. Our political industrial complex and the powerful nonprofits and billionaires who finance it are destroying our city and state.
You think the NPIC is financed by billionaires? In the comments on Mission Local?
Murder actually requires intent. Words have meaning.
Stabbing someone in the neck with a 5 inch blade… what was could Arriechi have been intending?
Learn how the law works. Murder and manslaughter are different things, as is competence to stand trial vs incompetence and mens rea vs delusion.
To equate them all intentionally is to be a simpleton by choice.
https://missionlocal.org/2020/08/nurses-demand-sheriffs-discharge-from-san-francisco-general-hospital/
> A sheriff’s deputy had already been assigned to protect a doctor at the ward at the time of the stabbing, according to the sheriff’s department.
>
> But an eyewitness said the deputy was not focused on the alleged attacker when the man attacked the social worker. The eyewitness said they leaped in and pulled Tortolero Arriechi off of their colleague.
Sounds like the nurses’ concerns are still valid.
I worked at SFGH for many years. The institutional police (who later got subsumed into the SFSD) were worse than useless. I watched one of them leave their gun belt on the floor of the medical library, unattended, when he went to the toilet. Anybody could have picked it up.
There’s a key question here: was that deputy on the ward because this patient was a known threat? And if so, why was he not chaperoning him, irrespective of who he was assigned to protect?
This is terrible! My sympathy to the family, friends and co-workers. The city reasonably should done preventative measures. This is going to be a huge payout from the city to the person’s family.
“His quick actions allowed medical staff to begin life-saving measures for the victim without delay.”
Life-saving measures? The social worker is dead!
Life saving measures = ACLS
Woke. The ‘gift’ that keeps on giving…
Speaking of untreatable mental illness… people who think political slogans excuse security not doing their jobs…
The faux-progressives of SF have turned the city to a place hostile for workers, women and families.
Read the article again “Lenin”
Bodes well when Mandami sends out his social workers in New York 🤷🏻♀️
This is tragic.
The age old debate continues .
Should persons be allowed to live on the streets when most are impaired with mental health issues included self inflicted by taking drugs .
We cannot continue to allow persons who are impaired to live on the streets and do what they want.
This is a public health and safety issue .
Just think this guy was walking freely in society .
Each and every person who is impaired must be assessed and removed and placed.
They should not be allowed to roam freely to harm others and themselves .
Start with the out of control addicts who are out of their minds and erractic .
Go block by block and retake and reclaim .
Persons dont need to be all placed in the tenderloin or city .
It would be cheaper to build and house them elsewhere .
That the city is paying 6k/month to house an active drug addict at a hotel in the tenderloin is a fools errand .
Mental health centers where persons are placed and if need be locked up would be a good start .
Very sad to see the daily scene with persons who are impaired lying in the street , taking drugs and obviously unable to care for themselves .
Just placing them in a place without proper level of care and supervision is wrong as well . They just die on a wooden floor vs the cement .
Mental health crisis mainly related to drugs remains the number one problem why harm continues .
Tragic what happened at sf general.
Did the mayor go and do a press conference? This is one of your employees, someone’s family member, friend of friends. That’s how much he cares about labor, Tik Tok will not suffice. Get real get into the trenches.