Tragedy struck Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital last week when a 31-year-old social worker was fatally stabbed, an event that some have labeled both “predictable and preventable.” The incident unfolded on December 4 at approximately 1:30 p.m. in the hospital’s Ward 86, as reported by the San Francisco County Sheriff’s Office.

The attack occurred after hospital staff had requested security due to threats made by a patient against a doctor within the same ward. Responding to this concern, a sheriff’s deputy was on site to provide protection for the doctor when the situation escalated.

According to investigators from the Sheriff’s Office, the deputy quickly intervened upon hearing a commotion in the hallway where the suspect was assaulting a social worker. The deputy managed to restrain the suspect and secure the scene to prevent further harm.

In the course of the attack, the social worker, affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco, suffered multiple stab wounds to the neck and shoulders. Despite the hospital staff’s immediate response with CPR and emergency measures, the victim was rushed to the operating room in critical condition.

During the attack, the victim, only identified as a University of California, San Francisco social worker, sustained multiple stab wounds to the neck and shoulders. Hospital staff began performing lifesaving measures, including CPR and rushed the 31-year-old to an operating room in critical condition.  

The suspect, 34-year-old San Francisco resident Wilfredo Tortolero Arriechi, was subdued and taken into custody. A five-inch kitchen knife believed to have been used during the attack was recovered at the scene.  

Arriechi was booked at the San Francisco County Jail for attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, mayhem and being armed during the commission of a felony.  

On Saturday, officials with the San Francisco Police Department reported that the victim had died, KTLA’s sister-station KRON reported.  

Officials with the San Francisco Deputy Sheriff’s Association released a statement two days after the attack criticizing the city’s decision to reduce the number of SFCSO deputies assigned to the hospital.  

“This tragedy is exactly what deputies and staff warned would happen when the Department of Public Health cut deputy sheriff positions and shifted to a ‘response-only’ security model,” the statement read in part.  

Citing the hospital’s own data, the sheriff’s deputy union noted that there were on average “six physical assaults with injury each month” during the last year and urged department of health officials to increase the number of deputies assigned to the facility’s high-risk units. 

“This was not a random, unforeseeable incident,” DSA President Ken Lomba said. “ZSFGH’s own data show years of serious assaults and weapons on campus. Deputies, nurses, and social workers told DPH that pulling deputies off high-risk units/posts and replacing them with unarmed cadets and distant response teams would get someone seriously hurt or killed. On December 4, that prediction came true.” 

Health department officials on Saturday responded by saying steps to improve staff safety had been taken, including adding more security, working to get weapons detection systems installed and limiting access points for unauthorized personnel, SFGATE reported. 

Sheriff’s Investigators said the department is maintaining security in Ward 86 and that while “hospital staff and patients were understandably shaken,” there was no ongoing threat to the public.