San Francisco police announced the arrest of a man in connection with four separate, unprovoked attacks on other people in downtown early Sunday morning.
The attacks all happened within minutes of each other, the SFPD says in a release. "Officers simultaneously investigated multiple crime scenes, working together to identify and arrest the suspect."
The suspect has been identified as 60-year-old Effrim Baker of San Francisco.
Baker is accused first of assaulting an elderly man in a wheelchair on the 800 block of Market Street, near Fourth, around 7:34 a.m. Police arrived after a report of a bloodied male victim, and located that victim, who said he'd been assaulted without provocation.
Soon after, at 8 a.m., there was a report of a stabbing at Market and Battery streets. Police responded and found a man sufferin from a stab wound. "The victim told officers that the suspect approached him, and then stabbed him with an unknown object, before fleeing on Market Street," police say. "Through their investigation, officers determined that this incident was the first act of violence committed by the suspect; however, the victim fled to a safe location before contacting the police."
Five minutes later, there was another stabbing back near Fourth and Market streets. A third adult male victim was found there and taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening stab wounds.
At 8:10 a.m., Baker allegedly committed a third stabbing on the 900 block of Market Street. "When officers arrived, they located Baker, walking away from the area with a fixed blade-edged weapon in his hands. Officers detained Baker without incident," the SFPD says.
The fourth victim told police that he had been in some sort of struggle with Baker over the victim's property, which led to the stabbing. This victim was also transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injures.
Baker was subsequently arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated assault, three counts of attempted murder, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and a count of elder abuse.
Anyone with information on an of these incident is asked to call the SFPD tip line at 415-575-4444, or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the message with “SFPD.” Tipsters can remain anonymous.
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