FiDi & North Beach Crime Roundup: Stabbing, Muggings & Sexual Assaults

FiDi & North Beach Crime Roundup: Stabbing, Muggings & Sexual AssaultsA press conference was held at Ping Yuen on Friday to address a recent burglary and sexual assault. (Photo: Tan Chow/CCDC)
Geri Koeppel
Published on April 30, 2016

The SFPD Central Station newsletter is on hiatus this week, so we don't have any excerpts. However, in case you missed our stories yesterday, the SFPD is searching for two people of interest in recent crimes.

First, police are asking for the public's help in locating a suspect in the burglary and sexual assault of a woman, 74, on the 800 block of Pacific Avenue between Stockton and Powell streets in Chinatown at 1:50pm April 24th. They have pictures from a video surveillance camera of a person of interest. A press conference was held on Friday at the Ping Yuen housing development to notify the neighborhood, and flyers have been posted.

Images: SFPD

The crime has hit the community particularly hard, as it recalled the rape and murder of a Ping Yuen tenant in 1978 that kicked off a rent strike and propelled Ed Lee, then a young attorney, into the spotlight. At the press conference, Chang Jok Lee, president of Ping Yuen Resident Improvement Association (PYRIA), tearfully spoke on behalf of the tenants.

"Hearing Ms. Lee's moving statement near the site of this most recent crime brought many of us to tears," said Gen Fujioka, policy director of the Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC), in an email to us. "She recalled the previous assault almost 40 years ago and the rent strike which she helped lead.  And she urged us all to address the still unfinished task of making the Pings safe for seniors and families." Also at the event were CCDC Executive Director Rev. Norman Fong, Winnie Chu of Self-Help for the Elderly, members of PYRIA, Central Station Capt. David Lazar and several SFPD officers.

Photo: Gen Fujioka/CCDC

Police are also asking for help in another sexual assault, this one in the FiDi. A woman, 23, met a man and went back to her hotel, where the assault occurred at about 1:30am April 24th. He's described as being 5 feet, 8 inches tall and around 25–30 years old with a medium complexion, and he told the victim that his name was "Sergio." Again, there is a surveillance photo, but it's difficult to make out the man's features.

Image: SFPD

Anyone with information should call the San Francisco Police Department’s Special Victims Unit at (415) 553-9225. You can also contact the SFPD Anonymous Tip Line at (415) 575-4444, or text a tip to Tip411 with SFPD at the start of the message. 

Here are a few other crimes reported in the area in the past week, as culled from daily reports from SFPD:

Intruder stabs man multiple times

A man was stabbed in Chinatown at 9:30am April 22nd on the 900 block of Clay Street. He heard someone trying to enter his apartment, and he opened the door and confronted a man, about age 35. A physical struggle ensued, and the intruder cut the victim with a knife and fled. The victim suffered multiple cuts and was taken to the hospital in non-life-threatening condition.

Man mugged for camera

At 9:15pm April 25th, a 33-year-old man was robbed of his camera at Sacramento Street and Grant Avenue in Chinatown. He was walking on the southwest corner when a man pushed him and then reached and pulled the camera strap from around his neck. The suspect stole the camera and fled on foot westbound on Grant.

Three men rob man of backpack at knifepoint

On the 600 block of Broadway near Columbus Avenue on the border of North Beach and Chinatown at 2am April 27th, a group of three men, about age 30–35, robbed a man, 33, of his backpack containing a laptop and Japanese currency. The suspects approached the victim and told him to give them his backpack, and then pushed him to the ground. One suspect pulled out a knife, and the victim handed over the backpack. The suspects fled on foot.