When a social worker was stabbed repeatedly by a patient on Thursday afternoon at San Francisco General Hospital, the sheriff’s deputy assigned to provide additional security for hospital staff was petting a dog, according to an eyewitness interviewed by Mission Local.
The deputy had specifically been called to Ward 86, the hospital’s HIV clinic, because of concerns about the alleged attacker, who had earlier threatened hospital staff and was a known and feared presence at the clinic. But at the time of the stabbing, the witness said the deputy was not within eyeshot of the man from whom he was charged to protect staff.
The witness, an employee at the hospital’s HIV ward who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they intervened as the stabbing occurred, and pulled the attacker off of their colleague. This contradicts a statement from the Sheriff’s Department, which said the deputy “intervened immediately” as the attack unfolded. Sheriff’s deputies provide security at the hospital and other city buildings…