Update: On Dec. 6, two days after the stabbing, the social worker died as a result of their injuries.
A social worker was stabbed repeatedly in the neck and shoulder by a patient at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital today, according to the sheriff’s department.
A man in his thirties, who was at the hospital for a scheduled appointment, was arrested for the stabbing. He is believed to have used a five-inch kitchen knife.
The victim is in critical condition, according to a statement from the sheriff’s department.
Before the stabbing, the suspect had been allegedly threatening a doctor at the hospital’s HIV clinic in Ward 86 on the sixth floor, and a sheriff’s deputy had been called around 1:30 p.m. to provide security. Soon after, the suspect began attacking the social worker.
Sources said that workers from the University of California, San Francisco at the site were warned to stay away from Building 80-90, where the incident occurred.
Video taken by users on Citizen showed a man being taken out of the building on a stretcher surrounded by medical staff, wearing a breathing mask and with fluids being administered.
Tara Moriarty, the spokesperson for the sheriff’s department, confirmed that the sheriff and the mayor arrived at the hospital to address press that gathered there.
The stabbing occurred less than two hours after another stabbing, in which a person in custody at the county jail was stabbed in the stomach by a fellow incarcerated person.
Officials learned of that prior stabbing as they were holding a press conference for the new police chief, Derrick Lew.
Assaulting a social worker should come with the same penalties you get for assaulting a cop. We as a society need to do better by them.
It’s terrible that people will make this into politics as if politics solved it.
What’s the over under on how many priors this upstanding citizen has?