Muni Diaries

Photo by Jeffrey

Just when you think we’ve had enough violent stories for the week, we received an account from Muni rider Robert, who witnessed a terrible beating on Wednesday after the Giants parade. Here’s an excerpt of his report.

This is not a fun or pretty story.

I was on the 9, going home after the Giants World Series parade and celebration shortly after 4 p.m. The bus was extremely crowded as expected and the driver kept telling everybody to step back, claiming that there was plenty of room in the back. He was mistaken. He had left the driver’s seat and went outside to direct or cajole the passengers who were boarding at the rear door when I was stepping into the bus from the front door. I paid the fare and walked to an open spot in the front half of the bus.

At a stop on Potrero, a young Hispanic couple stepped off the bus and were followed by a group of riders that numbered at least a dozen. The group of riders attacked the couple, who were shortly down on the sidewalk. [They] surrounded, kicked, and stomped on the prostrate couple in a frenzy of violence. Some of the riders recorded videos on their cellphones. Some people called for emergency assistance. When the beating had concluded, the man was bleeding from his mouth but didn’t seem seriously injured as he was able to get up from the sidewalk. Unfortunately, his lady friend was still down and convulsing. I saw a lot of blood on the sidewalk.

Some of the attackers actually re-entered the bus, expecting it to drive away from the scene. Only after they realized that the driver was waiting for police and ambulance did they exit the bus and disappear into the Potrero Avenue crowd. I remember one of the attackers who returned to the bus had red and white tassels woven into thin dreadlocks. I can’t forget the animated motion of the tassels as the attacker brutally stomped [on the couple].

The San Francisco Police Department summary of the incident reported that there were five suspects — one black man and four black women. The suspects had left the scene; the victims were taken to a local hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Scary stuff to add to this week’s list of bad news in light of the good baseball news. Be careful out there, everyone.