A freshman at San Francisco's Sacred Heart Preparatory School was fatally stabbed yesterday, over what the school's head football coach says were "social media issues."
14-year-old Rashawn Williams was stabbed by an as-yet-unidentified male suspect at 6:50 p.m. Tuesday night on Folsom Street near 26th Street in the Mission District, police say. According to the Chron, Williams had just bought candy at nearby Rubin's Market, when he was jumped by "two individuals who appeared to be teenagers," one of whom stabbed him.
A witness says that the suspects ran north on Folsom Street, and Williams ran west on 26th Street, toward home. Williams' mother then transported him to a nearby hospital (According to the Chron, St. Luke's) and from there, paramedics transported him to San Francisco General Hospital (which has a superior trauma center), where he was pronounced dead, police say.
Though the official word from SFPD is that "the motive for the stabbing remains under investigation," the Chron reports that Ken Peralta, Sacred Heart's head football coach, wrote in a private Facebook post: "Seems that another young man had issues with him over social media issues and was threatening him...The two crossed paths and with his little brother in hand, Rashawn was knifed in the heart."
When contacted by SFist, SFPD could not confirm the details of the stabbing as described by Peralta, and said they did not have any suspect information to release at this time. CBS5 reports that the suspect is "a Hispanic male of an unknown age."
Williams, who was, Peralta says, a "wonderful," "quiet" 4.0 student, was also a member of the freshman football team and the eldest of four siblings.
As always, SFPD asks that anyone with information about the stabbing contact police at 415-575-4444 or to text a tip to TIP411 with “SFPD” at the start of the message.
