15-year-old Chinese American student unprovoked stabbed on Muni, community calls for bus marshals to ensure safety in midst of anti-Asian hate and violence

(SAN FRANCISCO) For the past three years since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, anti-Asian hate and violence has continuously been on the rise. Public transit has been one of the top locations of all the attacks and harassments occurring related to hate against the Asian community. A 15-year-old Chinese American high school student was stabbed by a 12-year-old African American boy to near death on a Muni bus on March 13.

The stabbing incident has not only shocked the Chinese and Asian community, but brought more fear to them, especially for the parents who have young children to ride buses to go to schools everyday.

In wake of the brutal stabbing incident, members of the Chinese community demand the city to come up with more safety measures to ensure the muni bus system is safe, including deploying bus marshals to ride the buses during the after school peak hours.

The stabbing occurred at around 4:30pm on March 13. According to the Police Department, the stabbing occurred on a south bound 8BX express line bus traveling on Stockton Street. The police officers were flagged down at Stockton and Sutter Streets in the Union Square.

The 8BX bus entered the Stockton Street tunnel from Chinatown and stopped at the first bus stop after coming through the tunnel. Police officers found a 15-year-old student, who was stabbed, suffering from life threatening injury. Four African American juveniles were first detained by the officers near the scene. A 12-year-old boy was later arrested and charged with attempted homicide and unrelated robbery and stabbing.

There had been some news reports that a fight and dispute occurred before the stabbing between the victim and the suspects. Police Department spokesman Officer Robert Rueca confirmed that the stabbing was unprovoked. The suspect was unknown to the victim prior to the incident.

"Unprovoked Muni stabbing victim, 15-year-old student, is recovering from life threatening injury. SFPD arrested a 12-year-old male, booked for attempted homicide and unrelated SF robbery/stabbing. Thanks to witnesses and Central Station officers involved in saving the victim's life and apprehending the suspect," Rueca announced on Twitter.

Multiple sources confirmed with Wind Newspaper that the 12-year-old male suspect didn't know the victim, who is a high school student in the North Beach neighborhood. The 12-year-old suspect and his friends are the students at a middle school also in the same neighborhood. The ages of the other three juveniles who were with the suspect on the same bus are from 12 to 14 years old.

The 12-year-old suspect and his friends are not the residents of North Beach or Chinatown. Multiple sources said the victim and the suspect might board on the 8BX bus before the bus went through the Stockton Street tunnel.

According to the sources, the 8BX bus was packed when the stabbing occurred. Both the victim and the suspect were standing on the bus. The suspect tried to walk to the victim's spot and talk to the victim. Then the suspect stabbed the victim in the neck in a quick action.

The sources said the 12-year-old suspect and his friends fled from the scene after the stabbing. The police officers, who patrolled the Union Square on overtime due to staffing shortage, were nearby the 8BX bus. They were told by the witnesses that the teens running away from the bus were involved in the stabbing. Four teens were detained shortly by the police officers.

The 12-year-old suspect was also wanted in an earlier robbery and stabbing incident which occurred in the financial district close to Chinatown about one to two weeks prior to the Muni stabbing.

Marlene Tran, Visitacion Valley community leader and an advocate for crime victims, asked for more actions by the city to ensure safety on public transit including deploying bus marshals riding on the buses along the Asian neighborhoods.

"I remember some time ago there were officers riding on the buses. Now It is time to bring back the measures and the officers, because we are facing a large number of anti-Asian hate attacks on buses," said Tran.

Currently there is a debate in the Board of Supervisors if Mayor London Breed's $27 million supplemental budget for the Police Department should be adopted or not.

Lily Lo, Co-Founder of BeChinatown, supported the extra fund for the Police Department to pay for overtime to have more officers patrolling on the streets and buses, due to the anti-Asian hate and violence still happening.

Lo would like to see SFPD's retired officer ambassadors and community ambassadors assigned to ride on buses during after school rush hours for the bus lines serving the Asian neighborhoods, Chinatown, Visitacion Valley, Bayview, Portola, and more.

The bus lines that members of the Chinese community suggested to have bus marshals are 30, 8, 8AX, 8BX, 29, 45, M, K, T. Wind Newspaper forwarded the community's comments to Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who also serves as the President of the Board of Supervisors and represents Chinatown/North Beach, Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) Director Jeff Tumlin, and Assistant Police Chief David Lazar.

"The Board has been in close communication with SFPD about the deployment of officers and ambassadors over the last few weeks and during yesterday’s (March 15) discussion. Increasing safety along and on transit lines has definitely come up in conversation. We will definitely follow up with SFPD and bring this to SFMTA during our check in with Director Tumlin," said Calvin Yan from Peskin's office.

"Thank you for these comments and the feedback. We’ve been meeting internally about these concerns as safety is a huge priority for us, and I’ll be sure to share this with the team," Erica Kato, spokesperson of SFMTA, stated.

"We are so grateful to SFPD and appreciate their partnership and swift action. Rider safety will always be a priority and we take crime on our vehicles seriously," Kato added. "If you see something, say something, and do not hesitate to call 911 in case of an emergency."

"Throughout the past year, we have worked diligently to improve Muni safety including increasing staff presence across our system and maintaining our network of cameras on each vehicle.," Kato said.

Lazar responded that SFPD would have police officers join to ride muni buses. "There is no plan for the ambassadors (retired police officers) to ride the buses. This being said, I would like to see the foot beat officers ride the buses and I will work on that . We have to make the bus line safe." said Lazar.