Man arrested in stabbing of two Asian women waiting for bus in San Francisco


Chui Fong Eng

A man has been arrested for allegedly stabbing two Asian women as they waited for a bus in San Francisco's Mission District.

Patrick Thompson, 54, was charged Wednesday with two charges of attempted murder and elder abuse, KPIX-TV reported. Police had not indicated whether a hate crime charge would be added, but had not ruled it out.

Both victims - Chui Fong Eng, 85, and an unidentified 63-year-old woman - were waiting for the bus late Tuesday afternoon. Eng was carrying groceries, her grandson told KPIX, when a man stabbed them at around 5 p.m., in broad daylight.

The two did not know each other, he said. Witnesses recalled seeing a man with a knife strolling up behind the women, stabbing them and sauntering away "like nothing happened, like Sunday morning," Patricia Lee told ABC affiliate KGO-TV. "It was a pretty big knife, it had knuckles on the handle and the blade had holes in there like a military knife."

Eng "was attacked from behind and stabbed through the arm and into the chest," her grandson, Drew Eng, told KPIX. She underwent surgery Tuesday night for injuries that were initially life-threatening, but police said Wednesday her condition had been upgraded to non-life-threatening, The Associated Press reported.

The 63-year-old woman was slashed across the back and elbow, Supervisor Matt Haney told KNTV-TV.

Both women remained hospitalized Wednesday, AP said.

Police managed to retrieve a picture of him from area cameras, KNTV reported, and picked Thompson up about two hours after the attack.

The San Francisco Police Department had already said in March that they planned to increase patrols in predominantly Asian neighborhoods in response to "an alarming spike in brazen anti-Asian violence in recent weeks," KNTV reported.

Such attacks have been happening all over the U.S. since the coronavirus pandemic started and former federal officials attached racial epithets to the scourge.

The violence brought swift reaction from local officials, and an outpouring of support from the community. A GoFundMe account organized by Eng's granddaughter Victoria Eng had surpassed its $50,000 goal by Wednesday evening.

"These are horrifying, deliberate attacks on Asian residents, often elderly," said Haney, who represents the area where the latest attack occurred. "We have to stop this. People need to be able to walk down the street safely and wait for a bus without fear."