KTVU
March 8, 2014
As San Francisco Police search for man in a wheelchair who has attacked multiple people in the area of SF General Hospital, a victim of one of those assaults on Thursday described how she fought off the attacker with her cane.
The Sheriff’s Department issued a crime alert earlier this week stating at least four people have been attacked near San Francisco General Hospital.
Investigators describe the man as African American, between 40 and 50 years old. His right leg is partially amputated and he’s in a wheelchair.
SF resident Anne Whybrow told KTVU she too was attacked by a man in a wheelchair on Tuesday, February 25. But in her case she was accosted near her home in the Haight Ashbury District.
“It’s upsetting,” said Whybrow. “It kind of ruffles you.”
She told KTVU she was a few feet from her home when a man in a wheelchair asked her for a handout.
“‘Can you give me some money? I know you can,'” Whybrow remembered the man saying. What happened next shocked and surprised her.
“He went around in his wheelchair one more time, got in front of me. Went out with a grope took a breast and turned it like a dial,” said Whybrow.
Whybrow told KTVU she was upset, but wasn’t going to let the man get away with assaulting her. So she grabbed her cane and fought back.
“You get a good grip. Boom! I think I got him in the shoulder,” said Whybrow. “He’ll never grope me again.”
Whybrow said she was ok, but will feel better if the suspect is caught.
The San Francisco Sheriff’s Department issued the alert after receiving information of four other attacks by this man in a wheelchair. One happened the day before Whybrow’s attack.
“The employee reported they had been punched in the torso or the midsection By a person in a wheelchair that had a partially amputated leg,” San Francisco Sheriff Office spokesperson Susan Fahey.
Investigators said the man uses his working leg to propel himself and is capable of moving at a high rate of speed.
Anyone who spots the suspect is asked to call the sheriff’s department’s patrol unit at (415) 206-4911.