Daily News Roundup for Friday, June 10, 2016 for San Francisco and the Bay Area

30-YEAR-OLD HOSPITALIZED AFTER STABBING OUTSIDE SUNSET DISTRICT BAR

A 30-year-old man was stabbed in the back early this morning as he stood outside a bar in San Francisco’s Sunset District. At 1:24 a.m., officers responded to a report of a stabbing outside a business located in the 2300 block of Irving Street, according to police. A man had gone outside of a bar to send a text message, when someone came up from behind him and stabbed him, police said. The suspect, described as a man in his 20s, then fled on foot, heading north on 24th Avenue and then west on Lincoln Avenue. The victim suffered non life-threatening injuries and was taken to a hospital, according to police. A detailed description of the suspect was not immediately available.

MAN SHOT WHILE WALKING IN TENDERLOIN

Police are investigating a shooting of a man Thursday night as he walked down a street in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.
Around 10:15 p.m., the 36-year-old man was walking near McAllister Street and Charles J. Brenham Place, according to police.
The man then felt as if he’d been shot. He was able to find a police officer and report the incident.
The officer then requested an ambulance and the victim was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the wrist and thigh, according to police.
Officers were unable to locate a suspect and no arrest has been made as of this morning.

59-YEAR-OLD MAN STABBED SEVERAL TIMES DURING TENDERLOIN ROBBERY

A 59-year-old man suffered several stab wounds Thursday morning during a robbery in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.
Around 5 a.m., officers responded to a report of a stabbing and robbery in the 300 block of Golden Gate Avenue, according to police.
Officers learned that an unknown number of suspects allegedly came up from behind and stabbed the victim multiple times.
The group then robbed the man, taking his cellphone and cash before fleeing, police said.
The victim suffered stab wounds to his leg, shoulder and wrist. He was taken to a hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening.
Officers were unable to locate and arrest the alleged attackers. A description of the suspects was not immediately available.

POLICE SEEKING TWO WHO KIDNAPPED, ROBBED WOMAN IN MISSION DISTRICT

Police are investigating a kidnapping and robbery after a woman reported that two people forced her to get into a car before robbing her Thursday afternoon in San Francisco’s Mission District.
Around 12:35 p.m., a 44-year-old woman was walking in the 2800 block of 23rd Street, when someone asked her for directions, according to police spokeswoman Grace Gatpandan.
The woman ignored the person asking for directions.
A short while later, the same person pulled up in a white, 2-door vehicle, along with another person, Gatpandan said.
The two then demanded that the woman get in the vehicle. Out of fear, the woman entered the vehicle.
The two suspects then held the woman against her will for about an
hour. During that time, they robbed the victim of her cellphone, cash and debit card, according to Gatpandan.
The pair then dropped the woman off, just a block away from where they abducted her, near 23rd and Hampshire streets, Gatpandan said.
The woman was uninjured.
The two suspects were described as a woman between 60 and 65 years old and a man between 40 and 50 years old.The incident remains under investigation, according to Gatpandan.

WOMAN FATALLY STRUCK BY PARATRANSIT BUS WAS 1 OF 3 PEDESTRIANS HIT BY CARS THURSDAY

A woman who was fatally struck near San Francisco’s St. Mary’s Cathedral Thursday morning by a paratransit bus driver was identified today
as 86-year-old Lurilla Harris.
Harris, a San Francisco resident, was identified by the medical examiner’s office as the woman hit as she crossed Franklin Street at Geary Boulevard at 10:48 a.m. Thursday after exiting a paratransit bus.
The driver of the bus who police said accelerated and struck Harris was a “veteran” paratransit operator who had just returned to work, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.
The SFMTA board approved on May 3 a $142.9 million five-year contract with Transdev Services, Inc. — the company the driver was employed through — for paratransit brokerage and transportation services, according to the SFMTA.
The driver was detained at the scene but was not arrested. Police are investigating the case, which occurred alongside two other vehicle-versus-pedestrian incidents Thursday.
Around 45 minutes before, there was a woman who was struck and suffered a broken leg immediately following a burglary in the 1800 block of Divisadero Street, according to police reports.
Additionally, at about 3 p.m. the same day, a pedestrian was hospitalized after a vehicle backed up into him near Turk and Hyde streets, according to police.
The driver fled in both of these incidents.There were also several pedestrians struck by vehicles in the city
last month, including a 77-year-old Daly City man who was killed the night of May 10 when an electric motorcycle struck him.
Mayor Ed Lee and other city officials made a pledge in 2014 to work toward Vision Zero, a goal to eliminate traffic-related deaths in the city by 2024.
In addressing the most recent fatal incident on Thursday afternoon, SFMTA board Chairman Tom Nolan expressed condolences and said city leaders “remain fully committed to pedestrian safety and our Vision Zero goal.”

POLICE ARREST SUSPECTED ‘BACK DOOR BURGLAR’

San Francisco police on Sunday arrested a 52-year-old man who officers suspect broke into three businesses and possibly more by forcing his way in through the businesses’ back doors.
Gary Smith was arrested at noon at his home in the first block of Essex Street on suspicion of three counts of second-degree burglary and police are looking into whether he broke into other city businesses.
Police allege that Smith is their “Back Door” burglar whose mode of operation resembled those in burglaries since mid-April at businesses in the Clement Street, Balboa Street and Geary Boulevard areas of the city’s Richmond District.
Police allege that Smith’s first burglary took place at 10:21 p.m.April 29 in the 2100 block of Clement Street where he destroyed two video cameras before leaving with cash.
The second took place at 9:10 p.m. May 1 at a restaurant in the 3300 block of Balboa Street and the third occurred at 8:41 p.m. May 6 in the 200 block of Clement Street where cash was taken, according to police.
Surveillance video from more than one burglary was used to identify Smith as a suspect, police said.
Smith has previous arrests for burglary and is on felony probation for elder abuse, according to police.
Officers booked Smith into the county jail.
Anyone with information about the burglaries is being asked to call the San Francisco Police Department’s Richmond Station investigation team at (415) 666-8000 or the anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444.

CONSTRUCTION WORKER STABBED TO DEATH WHILE ESCORTING SUSPECTS AWAY FROM WORK SITE

A construction worker was stabbed to death while escorting two suspects away from her construction site in San Francisco’s South of Market
neighborhood this morning, a police spokeswoman said.
Police responded to reports of the argument in the 300 block of Fifth Street just before 9:30 a.m. and arrested two suspects, Officer Grace Gatpandan said.
The construction worker, a woman who has not been identified, was working at a site on Shipley Street, an alley between Harrison and Folsom streets.
After an argument there, she escorted two suspects, a man and a woman, away from the construction site. When she didn’t come back right away, her co-workers went to check on her and found her stabbed, Gatpandan said.
The other workers saw the man and woman walking away and tried to stop them. They followed them to Fifth and Folsom streets and police arrived and arrested them, Gatpandan said.
The stabbed construction worker was taken to a hospital but died there a short time later.
Police have not released the name of the victim or the two suspects.

(News via Bay City News)