Soccer Player Suspected Of SF Ref Assault Busted In East Bay

Investigators from the San Francisco Police Department's Taraval Station crossed the Bay Bridge Friday, as they tracked their prime suspect in a soccer game gone horribly wrong to Richmond.

Maybe you remember the story: Back on Sunday, February 21, a soccer player at the Minnie and Lovie Ward Recreation Center got yellow-carded (the "warning" given out by a referee for milder forms of misconduct). When the player argued, the 33-year-old ref gave him a second yellow card, which caused the player's suspension from the game.

The player, who SFPD spokesperson Officer Albie Esparza says was later identified as 30-year-old Richmond resident Gabriel Rene Lopez-Alcocer, "ran up to the referee from behind and punched him in the side of his head" which "resulted in a broken jaw and the loss of several teeth."

The injured referee, Esparza says, "was transported to the hospital and is recuperating from his injuries."

Lopez-Alcocer then allegedly fled the scene, but only remained under the radar for a few weeks. According to Esparza, at 7 a.m. on March 4, the Taraval Investigations Team served a search warrant on Lopez-Alcocer's residence on the 200 block of South 23rd Street in Richmond.

The warrant, Esparza says, resulted in Lopez-Alcocer's arrest for the beating. He was booked into the San Francisco County Jail for one count of battery resulting in serious injury, which Esparza notes is a felony. According to the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, Lopez-Alcocer has since been released on bail. Information on his next court date was not available at publication time.

Previously: Soccer Hooligan Leaves SF Ref With Traumatic Brain Injury