Deputy was petting dog, not watching attacker, during S.F. stabbing

When a social worker was stabbed repeatedly by a patient on Thursday afternoon at San Francisco General Hospital, the sheriff’s deputy assigned to provide additional security for hospital staff was petting a dog, according to an eyewitness interviewed by Mission Local. 

The deputy had specifically been called to Ward 86, the hospital’s HIV clinic, because of concerns about the alleged attacker, who had earlier threatened hospital staff and was a known and feared presence at the clinic. But at the time of the stabbing, the witness said the deputy was not within eyeshot of the man from whom he was charged to protect staff.

The witness, an employee at the hospital’s HIV ward who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they intervened as the stabbing occurred, and pulled the attacker off of their colleague. This contradicts a statement from the Sheriff’s Department, which said the deputy “intervened immediately” as the attack unfolded. Sheriff’s deputies provide security at the hospital and other city buildings. 

What’s more, the alleged attacker was purportedly a regular patient at the ward, and had made threats toward medical staff in recent weeks, the witness said. He had threatened a doctor at the HIV unit with bodily harm, and the doctor had reported the situation to the Department of Public Health, according to the witness. San Francisco City Clinic, a free clinic on Seventh Street, had also informed the unit of the same patient making threats there, the witness said.

“This could have been avoided on so many fucking levels,” the witness said. “We knew three weeks ago about this patient.” 

Wilfredo Tortolero-Arriechi, 34, was arrested yesterday for attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and mayhem. 

The social worker is on life support, and sources say those who know him are saying their goodbyes at the hospital. In a statement, the Department of Public Health confirmed he is still in critical condition and declined to give additional information, citing medical privacy laws.

Ward 86, one of the longest-standing HIV clinics in the country and a pioneer in HIV/AIDS care, is closed indefinitely and employees are not going in to work. 

The ward treats many patients suffering from mental illness and behavioral health issues, stimulant-use disorder and schizophrenia, the witness said, and is not sufficiently equipped to keep staff safe. Threats of violence happen often. At a debriefing today after the incident, the source said staffers were asked to raise their hands if they had ever felt unsafe or been threatened at work.  

“We all kept raising our hands,” they said. 

Standard protections, meanwhile, are lacking: Staff don’t receive hazard pay, the rooms don’t have panic buttons, the building doesn’t have metal detectors — after this incident, the hospital told staff it would install them and close off one entrance. The source also said there was also no “crash cart” with lifesaving equipment readily available. 

And the deputy who was there to protect the social worker from the patient, the witness said, was not watching Tortolero-Arriechi closely. 

“We work with some of the most vulnerable because we want to help the people, that’s what we’re there for,” the witness said. “At the same time, it’s like, how can we do our job safely?” 

A spokesperson for the sheriff’s department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The witness said they were just a few feet away when Tortolero-Arriechi, who they were familiar with as having behavioral health issues, began stabbing a social worker in the hallway of the ward. 

At first, the witness thought the man was punching the social worker, before realizing he was actually stabbing him in the neck and stomach. 

“He was screaming in a nonsensical way,” the witness said of the alleged attacker. Seeing a colleague struggling in a chokehold, the witness ran to intervene, yanked the two apart and realized the attacker had actually been stabbing the social worker. “I just froze, and I was like, ‘oh, shit, I’m gonna die.’” 

The attacker then tossed a knife across the hallway and pulled his shirt over his head, the witness said, before the sheriff’s deputy arrived and handcuffed him. The social worker began “gushing blood” and his colleagues began trying to save his life. 

The Sheriff’s Department on Thursday said it collected a five-inch kitchen knife at the scene. 

An email sent to hospital staff this evening revealed that metal detectors were already scheduled to be installed at this ward — but hadn’t been put in yet. 

The evening email outlined immediate changes being implemented like “increasing security presence and sheriff deputy presence” at Building 80-90, where the incident occurred, and using security wands until the metal detectors are finally installed. It also indicated plans to adjust security protocols for high-risk patients and working with the sheriff’s deputies to “enhance intervention protocols during safety incidents.” 

But the witness said that staff at the unit are fearful and angry that such protocols were not already in place. At this time, the witness doesn’t know if they’ll return to work. 

“There’s a culture … of desensitization,” they said. “I’m not desensitized to it, and I don’t want to be.”