{"id":104871,"date":"2025-12-22T13:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T13:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/104871\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T13:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T13:30:09","slug":"what-went-wrong-in-ward-86-a-timeline-of-alberto-rangels-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/104871\/","title":{"rendered":"What went wrong in Ward 86? A timeline of Alberto Rangel’s killing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over two weeks since the death of Alberto Rangel<\/a>, a social worker<\/a> at San Francisco General Hospital\u2019s Ward 86<\/a>, an outpatient HIV\/AIDS clinic, staff and patients are left questioning<\/a> what could have been done to prevent his killing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rangel was stabbed repeatedly by a patient who had been reported to hospital security for abusive behavior and threats made toward a doctor two weeks prior to the attack. There were plans in place to ban that patient, Wilfredo Totolero Arriechi, from the ward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the days following the attack, the sheriff\u2019s department issued a statement saying that a deputy intervened \u201cwithout hesitation.\u201d The sheriff\u2019s union subsequently issued its own statement, writing that the deputy was \u201cclose enough\u201d to \u201crapidly \u2026 intervene within seconds.\u201d The deputy, the union\u2019s statement read, prevented a \u201cmass-casualty stabbing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The statements have unsettled those on the floor during the attack. What they witnessed was decidedly different. \u201cI\u2019m flabbergasted that no one stopped him,\u201d remarked a staff member at Ward 86.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mission Local constructed a timeline of the essential hours and minutes preceding Rangel\u2019s death. This account comes from five eyewitnesses present at Ward 86, where the attack took place, and one present at the clinic Totolero Arriechi visited earlier that day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thursday, Dec. 4, 8 a.m. \u2014 \u00a0Wilfredo Tortolero Arriechi arrives at City Clinic<\/p>\n

Wilfredo Tortolero Arriechi, 34, was waiting outside San Francisco City Clinic at 356 7th St, which provides free STD testing and medication. It opens at 8 a.m. A nurse, whose name has been withheld, said Tortolero Arriechi repeatedly asked to see a doctor who worked at both the clinic and Ward 86. His behavior, she noted, was \u201codd\u201d and erratic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of psychotic talk,\u201d she recalled. Tortolero Arriechi demanded to see the doctor to \u201cgive him something,\u201d and threatened a lawsuit. \u201cI will keep coming back until I find him,\u201d he said, according to sources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was not the first time the nurse had seen Tortolero Arriechi there. The patient had come to the clinic several times over the prior few weeks, asking to see the same doctor, she said.\u00a0 Each time, she said, \u201cThe behavior was escalating.\u201d It was \u201cgetting worse and worse,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was ramping up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the time, City Clinic did not have metal detectors, so it is unknown whether Tortolero Arriechi entered the clinic with a weapon. Since then, the clinic, along with Ward 86, has added a security guard with a metal detection wand.<\/p>\n

8:15 a.m.\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0Tortolero Arriechi leaves the clinic<\/p>\n

Staff at the clinic\u2019s registration desk managed to calm Tortolero Arriechi long enough to convince him to leave, the nurse said. Tortolero Arriechi left within 15 minutes, she said. The nurse did not know what his plans were, or where he was going.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Basil Price, the director of security at the Department of Public Health, had been aware of Tortolero Arriechi\u2019s fixation on the doctor for weeks. The Department of Public Health listed Tortolero Arriechi \u201cunder investigation\u201d<\/a> in a November document obtained by Mission Local.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That document outlines a security meeting among DPH leaders, the sheriff\u2019s department and private security. Among the topics discussed: Tortolero Arriechi\u2019s reported abusive behavior towards the doctor he would seek out at Ward 86 on Dec. 4. Tortolero Arriechi is described as having displayed \u201crepeated angry outbursts\u201d and \u201covert anger\u201d towards the doctor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tortolero Arriechi sought regular care at Ward 86 and last visited on Nov. 20, sources said. His behavior had grown concerning, and doctors planned to inform him that he could no longer receive treatment at that facility. Sources at Ward 86 say they repeatedly tried to contact Tortolero Arriechi leading up to Dec. 4 to tell him he could no longer visit the clinic.<\/p>\n

8:30 a.m. \u2014 City Clinic alerts security<\/p>\n

Approximately 15 minutes after Tortolero Arriechi left San Francisco City Clinic, sources from Ward 86 report that Price, the director of security, received two calls: one from an unknown staff member at the clinic, and one from the doctor who he threatened.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Price made the decision to call for a sheriff\u2019s deputy to be deployed to the ward, where the doctor was scheduled to be working, sources said. The ward does not usually have a deputy present, nor does it employ any other security personnel, metal detectors or other security measures to protect patients and staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ward 86 and the other six clinics in Building 80, however, will call security when needed. Those who work in the building know when security has been called by the presence of a guard sitting near the elevator at the ground floor entrance, monitoring who goes up the elevator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the past, said sources from the ward, one or two deputies have been sent when a threat was made. Witnesses who spoke to Mission Local said only one deputy was seen during the morning and afternoon before and during Tortolero Arriechi\u2019s attack. That one deputy went up to the sixth floor. No one was monitoring the traffic going up the elevator.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tortolero Arriechi\u2019s whereabouts for approximately five hours from 8:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. are unknown. Though if he traveled directly on foot, it would have taken approximately 36 minutes to reach the Potrero hospital from the South of Market clinic.<\/p>\n

\"AAt the entrance to Building 80, staff at Ward 86 say a deputy is stationed, when called, near the elevator. On Dec. 4, when Alberto Rangel was stabbed, witnesses say the deputy was not present. Illustration by Neil Ballard. <\/p>\n

1 p.m. \u2014 Ward 86 opens and sheriff\u2019s deputy arrives<\/p>\n

After Ward 86\u2019s staffers took their lunch breaks, the clinic opened for the day and began receiving patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the ward\u2019s nurses, Jessica Hoopengardner, began her daily duties. She checked in five patients, she said, and told them to wait in the waiting room until their appointment time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hoopengardner, along with another regular patient, was surprised to see a sheriff\u2019s deputy \u2014\u00a0the ward doesn\u2019t usually have security on site. She said she was uncomfortable with his presence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought it was weird,\u201d said Hoopengardner. \u201cThere\u2019s never cops here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

1:25 p.m. \u2014 Deputy is seen standing in the hallway, talking to a patient with a dog<\/p>\n

Charles Adams was sitting in the waiting room of Ward 86.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He, too, was taken aback to see a sheriff\u2019s deputy standing near the back stairway, near the pharmacy. Patients cannot enter using the stairway.\u00a0The deputy was talking to a patient who had brought a small dog, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The deputy\u2019s line of sight was toward the front desk, on the opposite wall from the elevator \u2014\u00a0where Tortolero Arriechi would arrive just minutes later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

1:30 p.m. \u2014 Tortolero Arriechi arrives at Ward 86<\/p>\n

Hoopengardner called her first patient of the day into the urgent care clinic, taking note of the sheriff\u2019s deputy. After taking the patient to urgent care, Hoopengardner walked back to the front desk at Ward 86 to phone the doctor seeing patients that day. Urgent Care, she told the doctor, is full and can\u2019t take any more patients for the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At approximately the same time, Tortolero Arriechi reportedly arrived at Building 80, walked past staff sitting at the building\u2019s front desk, and took the elevator to Ward 86 on the sixth floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sources note that if Tortolero Arriechi had been reported to security in the past and was barred from returning, they would likely have a photo of him on file.<\/p>\n

1:33 p.m. \u2014\u00a0Sheriff\u2019s deputy is seen standing near a dog<\/p>\n

A photo taken by a staff member, timestamped at 1:33 p.m., pictures a man wearing boots and a dark green pant leg \u2014 the uniform of a deputy sheriff \u2014 standing near a staff member and a dog. Onlookers said the uniform belonged to the deputy.<\/p>\n

Another eyewitness who spoke to Mission Local on the condition of anonymity said the deputy was seen \u201cpetting\u201d the dog<\/a> at this time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tortolero Arriechi arrived on the Ward 86 floor. About 11 people \u2014 five staff, and a few patients, were in the room. As Tortolero Arriechi approached the reception desk, the social worker Alberto Rangel \u201cmade a bee line\u201d for Tortolero Arriechi, speaking to him in Spanish, said sources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rangel began leading Tortolero Arriechi back toward the elevator. A witness nearby noted that Tortolero Arriechi \u201cseemed calm.\u201d Then, said the witness, \u201ceverything flipped.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AAt 1:33 p.m., a staff member took a photo of a small dog near the legs of a man in a deputy\u2019s uniform, minutes before Alberto Rangel was stabbed. Illustration by Neil Ballard. <\/p>\n

1:39 p.m. \u2014\u00a0Alberto Rangel is attacked<\/p>\n

Adams, who was seated in the waiting room, heard a commotion to his right \u2014\u00a0no yelling or screaming, just the sound of scuffling, he said. He looked over to see Tortolero Arriechi standing behind Rangel, stabbing him repeatedly in the neck and shoulder, before suddenly dropping a five-inch-long knife.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One witness who tried to intervene to pull the two apart said that Tortolero Arriechi was \u201cscreaming in a nonsensical way\u201d during the attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adams described seeing the sheriff\u2019s deputy standing, frozen, as Tortolero Arriechi attacked Rangel. \u201cHe did not say a word or move toward the man that had the knife until at least 10 to 15 seconds after the man dropped the knife and put himself up against the wall,\u201d Adams said. Adams remembered yelling \u201cGo!\u201d at the deputy, but did not see the deputy move until the attack had stopped.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rangel had crumpled into a ball on the floor, said Adams. A patient in the waiting room said the same. Tortolero Arriechi stood back, with his hands in the air, recalled Adams. A group of nurses and doctors raced to Rangel and crowded around his body.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was a \u201cblur,\u201d recalled a staff member. Some details given by staff and patients differ. But one detail remains the same: The intervention by the deputy and the time it took for emergency personnel to arrive were both painfully slow.\u00a0The sheriff\u2019s department, though it refused to comment on this article, has previously stood by the deputy\u2019s actions, stating that the deputy was assigned to protect the doctor who was threatened, not to \u201cshadow\u201d the attacker. <\/p>\n

Hoopengardner heard screaming and dogs barking and ran from the front desk to the hallway to see a body lying crumpled on the floor. At first, she said, she didn\u2019t understand that it was Rangel, who was a close friend. Another nurse yelled for someone to bring oxygen, screaming, \u201cIt\u2019s Alberto!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoopengardner, in shock, ran with another nurse to a clinic room about 60 feet away, grabbed an oxygen mask and ran back. She was alarmed to see Tortolero Arriechi standing a few feet away with his shirt pulled over his head and his hands behind his neck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the nurses and staff put pressure on Rangel\u2019s shoulder and neck to try to stop the bleeding. A staff member called 911.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At 1:39 p.m., records show the city\u2019s emergency dispatch center received the 911 call. Within minutes, medics recorded being en route to the ward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

1:41 p.m. \u2014 Staff attempt to save Rangel\u2019s life<\/p>\n

Hoopengardner ran back to the clinic room to grab towels to try and stop Rangel\u2019s profuse bleeding from his neck. Tortolero Arriechi, she said, was still standing in the same place. \u201cThere were no cops to be seen,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then, Hoopengardner recalls she lost all concentration on Tortolero Arriechi and focused on helping her friend stay alive. Rangel\u2019s legs were thrashing, and she knelt down to hold him down, holding an oxygen mask to his face with her free hand. Hoopengardner told him that she loved him, and urged him to stay with her. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was fighting this,\u201d she said, through tears. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t ready to go.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rangel lost his pulse for four minutes, she recalled. A doctor on the scene called a \u201cCode Blue,\u201d signaling a life-threatening emergency, and began to perform CPR.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A longtime patient sitting in the waiting room, ten feet away from the attack, remembers that \u201ctime skipped.\u201d She saw Rangel lying in a pool of blood with doctors and nurses gathering around him, and didn\u2019t understand who it was. \u201cThere was too much blood on his face,\u201d she said. Once she heard that it was Rangel, she said, she screamed. \u201cHe was always so kind,\u201d she remembered.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

She remembers seeing the deputy walk slowly toward Tortolero Arriechi and pin him against a wall. He was moving \u201cnot anywhere near fast,\u201d she recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would think he would run, right? He didn\u2019t,\u201d remembered Adams. The deputy walked at a \u201cnormal pace\u201d towards Tortolero Arriechi, and told him to put his hands behind his back. Tortolero Arriechi was already against the wall of his own volition. The deputy put the attacker\u2019s shirt over his head and walked him to an empty room near the pharmacy, past Adams, before locking him in. After Tortolero Arriechi was apprehended, he said, \u201cthere was no sign of another deputy on the floor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

1:44 p.m. \u2014 Staff and patients wait for \u2018what felt like forever\u2019<\/p>\n

The rest of the patients in the ward remember being ushered into the waiting room and left in there, behind a closed door, as doctors and nurses continue to try to save Rangel\u2019s life.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

One patient recalls hearing commands and screaming outside the door of the waiting room for \u201cwhat felt like forever\u201d until she heard the sound of a paramedic\u2019s radio, and the voices died down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought we were hearing him die,\u201d she said. \u201cI assumed they weren\u2019t coming.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The patient did not know if the attacker had been apprehended, or how secure the patients were in the waiting room. Adams recalls hearing voices say that Rangel had flatlined. Staff and patients argued over whether to leave the door open as one of the patients said she was claustrophobic. They agreed to leave it open just a crack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all really quiet,\u201d said a patient. \u201cWe heard everything, it was all very loud.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

1:47 p.m. \u2014 Medics arrive on scene<\/p>\n

After about five minutes of travel time, dispatch records show medics arrived at the scene, possibly to the front entrance of the building.<\/p>\n

1:50 p.m. \u2014 Paramedics render aid<\/p>\n

Staff and patients report that paramedics did not arrive for at least 10 minutes after Rangel was stabbed. Hoopengardner helped transfer Rangel onto a stretcher before he was taken from Ward 86 to San Francisco General\u2019s emergency department, 0.3 miles from Ward 86.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A patient in the waiting room sent an email, timestamped at 1:50 p.m., to her therapist\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are screaming in hall. Staff. They just yelled that he\u2019s breathing \u2026 We have a pulse. I don\u2019t know who it was, was so fast,\u201d the email read.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2:02 to 2:04 p.m. \u2014 Rangel is transported to the hospital<\/p>\n

At the hospital, Rangel immediately underwent extensive surgery in an attempt to repair severe injuries to his neck and shoulder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The surgery was unsuccessful, and he was put on life support, sources said. Over the next two days, friends, family, and colleagues said their goodbyes. Rangel was surrounded by family and loved ones, including his husband, when he died on Dec. 6.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2:15 p.m. \u2014 While Tortolero Arriechi is held in a room next door, patients and staff are told to stay put<\/p>\n

Sheriff\u2019s deputies opened the door to the waiting room and asked patients and staff if anyone had witnessed the stabbing. They took the statement of at least one of the patients as well as a staff member who reportedly recorded the incident.<\/p>\n

Adams thought they would want to hear from all of them, but he said that once a staff member told the deputies the attack had been recorded, they stopped pulling them aside for questioning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Patients and staff remember being told to stay inside the building, and were informed by the deputies that Tortolero Arriechi was being held in a room next door to where they waited. A patient, terrified, messaged her therapist again at 2:14 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police said suspect was being held in room next to me. I wanted to stay where the police took me. But they said suspect was being held in room next to us. It was Alberto who got stabbed. They stabilized him enough to move him. They have to clean blood and then we can go out back stairs,\u201d the message read.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the only one who lost it,\u201d she recalled. \u201cEveryone else was calm.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people in the waiting room were getting very anxious,\u201d another patient recalled. \u201cSeveral clients were having mini-breakdowns, and there was one in particular who had physical or mental disabilities who was there with his mother or sister.\u201d They started asking, he said, if they could leave, but were told to stay put.<\/p>\n

2:40 p.m. \u2014\u00a0UCSF issues Safety Alert No. 1<\/p>\n

UCSF issues its first safety alert, telling staff to avoid Building 80, where Rangel was attacked.<\/p>\n

3:04 p.m. \u2014\u00a0SFPD officers arrive<\/p>\n

According to the San Francisco Police Department, officers arrived at the building approximately one and a half hours after Rangel was attacked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tortolero Arriechi was arrested by the police officers, and was charged on Dec. 8 with Rangel\u2019s murder by San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. He is currently being held at the hospital\u2019s locked psychiatric ward<\/a> operated by the county jail.\u00a0<\/p>\n

3:40 p.m. \u2014 UCSF issues last safety alert<\/p>\n

UCSF issued a final safety alert,\u00a0this time telling staff members that they can leave Building 80 and go home for the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Patients and staff left the waiting room, walking down the back stairway, down six flights of stairs, said Adams. Once the door to the waiting room was finally opened, he noted a bench moved where the body had fallen. \u201cI did not see any person of authority on the floor,\u201d he recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No one on the floor, he said, helped them leave the building and get down the stairs. They each helped a man with disabilities walk down six flights of stairs. Some, anxious to leave, Adams recalled, went through the fourth floor door to go through the elevators instead. Others were too scared to use the elevator, and continued down the back stairs, including the disabled man and his family, said Adams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Adams reached the lower lobby, he was expecting to see a deputy who would take his statements, but no one was there, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much happened in such little time,\u201d he recalled. \u201cIt was traumatic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Eleni Balakrishnan and Lydia Chavez.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over two weeks since the death of Alberto Rangel, a social worker at San Francisco General Hospital\u2019s Ward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[723,101,29839,103,102,104,106,105,9217],"class_list":["post-104871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-crime","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-general-hospital","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-ucsf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}