Social worker dies after being stabbed at San Francisco hospital

"The suspect - Wilfredo Tortolero Arriechi, 34, of San Francisco - was taken into custody at the hospital and was booked into San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of charges including attempted murder, police said. A homicide charge was expected to be added. The attacker was said to be a patient. Ward 86 is the location of the HIV clinic at the hospital's main campus."

"Hospital staff had raised safety concerns and requested a sheriff's deputy be stationed in Ward 86 after a doctor received threats from a patient, the San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs' Association said in a statement Saturday. The deputy was in a nearby room when the attack occurred in the hallway. "This was not a random, unforeseeable incident," deputies' union President Ken Lomba said in the statement, which criticized the public health department's shift to a "response-only" security model."

The stabbing occurred at 1:39 p.m. Dec. 4 in a hallway of Ward 86 at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. The victim suffered neck and shoulder wounds from a 5-inch kitchen knife and was taken to surgery in critical condition; colleagues identified him as Alberto Rangel, 51. The suspect, Wilfredo Tortolero Arriechi, 34, was arrested at the hospital and booked on suspicion of attempted murder, with a homicide charge expected. The attacker was a patient and Ward 86 houses the hospital's HIV clinic. Staff had requested a deputy on the unit after threats; the deputies' union blamed a shift to a response-only security model and urged restoring deputies on high-risk posts.

Read at The Mercury News