A transient accused of stabbing a woman who refused to hand him change Saturday morning may be the same man who nearly killed an 11-year-old boy on a Muni bus in September.
A 25-year-old woman was walking to work near Jones and Sutter streets around 10:45 a.m. when a man, who police said has been hanging around the area for months, asked her for change, police Sgt. Vinny Catanzero said.
The woman said she didn’t have any, but the man followed her and stabbed her in the upper back and buttocks, Catanzero said.
“She thought she was getting punched,” he said.
Catanzero said doctors are worried about the woman’s back wound because it’s dangerously close to her spine, but she’s expected to survive.
Within minutes of the stabbing, witnesses flagged an officer down and led him to 31-year-old Anthony Gracie in the Le Colonial restaurant’s parking lot about a block away.
Gracie did not have a weapon with him nor did he appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but witnesses said they saw him use a six-inch blade.
An officer at the Central Police Station where Gracie was booked said he resembles a sketch of the suspect who stabbed 11-year-old Hatim Mansori on Sept. 1 while he was riding the 49-Van Ness bus in the Mission.
Mansori rode the bus alone for the first time that day, carrying a balloon in his lap that may have urged whoever stabbed him to pop it and subsequently slash his abdomen, Lt. Lyn Tomioka said.
“I think the boy’s home now,” Tomioka said. “But if he had been to the hospital a few minutes later, he would have bled to death.”
Witnesses who already sifted through several photos and lineups after Mansori was stabbed will be asked if they think Gracie is the same suspect. Gracie is currently in jail facing attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon charges.
“This guy is a stone-cold psychopath, and I do hope the victims are OK,” Catanzero said.
UPDATE: Gracie NOT the MUNI stabber (SFGate)
The homeless man accused of stabbing a woman Saturday was not the assailant who attacked an 11-year old boy on a Muni bus in September, San Francisco police said today.
Anthony Gracie, 31, allegedly stabbed and tried to rob the 25-year-old woman Saturday morning near Jones and Sutter streets as she was headed to work. She was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening wounds to her back and buttocks.
Police initially said the attack bore similarities to the Sept. 1 stabbing of Hatim Mansori, who was wounded as he rode the 49-Mission/Van Ness bus home from baseball practice. However, Gracie was in custody at the time of that stabbing, said Sgt. Wilfred Williams, a police spokesman.
Gracie is still in jail pending a decision on whether to prosecute him for Saturday's stabbing.
Only in SF would there be any question about whether to prosecute someone for a stabbing! Not to mention there will be some scrutiny surely about why Gracie was in jail, and, more importantly, why this "stone-cold psychopath" was released.
So, bottom line, there is still a homicidal maniac on the loose somewhere in SF, an animal who nearly killed an 11-year old boy on a bus.
I NEVER turn my back on anyone who tries to bum off of me. Ever. Most of these nutcases are harmless, but I NEVER assume they are. I've had two acquaintences murdered in this city by deranged nutcases, and I'll never give one the chance on me.
If that doesn't sound "compassionate" to you, well, fuck you.
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