The SFPD reported a stabbing Monday night on the 1600 block of Haight, between Clayton and Cole.
A neighbor who witnessed the incident said it occurred around the corner of Haight and Belvedere just after midnight, and appeared to be the result of a dispute over a pack of cigarettes.
Police report that a 25-year-old male assailant stabbed the victim, described as a 41-year-old male, after the two got in an altercation. The victim was sent to San Francisco General Hospital with life-threatening injuries to his torso.
The suspect fled the scene on foot, and was later captured and arrested by responding officers in the Panhandle near Oak and Shrader, police said.
This stabbing is the second such incident in less than a month, after the Whole Foods stabbing that sent a security guard to the hospital. There is no indication that the two incidents are related.
UPDATED: 3:10 PM
A witness living in a nearby apartment, who overheard the incident, said it involved three people: the victim, the suspect and a third party who attempted to intervene and prevent the stabbing.
According to the witness,
After the verbal dispute went on for a couple minutes, I heard a third man yelling at the assailant to "put down that knife, or I swear you won't make it off this sidewalk." The defender repeated this a few times before the assailant apparently decided to go ahead and stab the victim. I heard the victim yell, "He stabbed me in the fucking lung" several times while the assailant ran off and the defender called 911.The cops responded very quickly, within 30 seconds of the 911 call. Paramedics were on the scene within a minute to 90 seconds of the call.
