Witnesses stepped up to stop knifing on SF’s Market Street

Witnesses pin down a suspect who allegedly stabbed a man in broad daylight Tuesday on Market Street. Witnesses pin down a suspect who allegedly stabbed a man in broad daylight Tuesday on Market Street. Photo: Peter La / Peter La / Photo: Peter La / Peter La / Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Witnesses stepped up to stop knifing on SF’s Market Street 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

The victim of a broad-daylight stabbing on Market Street in San Francisco was attacked for “no reason” after the suspect walked up to him on the sidewalk and asked to borrow his pocket knife, police said Wednesday.

The suspect stabbed the victim multiple times, including once in the neck, before two employees of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and other witnesses intervened to stop the assault Tuesday.

The attacker, who was a stranger to the victim, was arrested after bystanders held him down until police arrived. The names of the 35-year-old suspect and 49-year-old victim were not released.

The stabbing occurred about 1 p.m. on the 900 block of Market Street after the suspect approached the victim at a bus stop and asked if he had a knife, said Officer Robert Rueca of the San Francisco Police Department.

When the victim handed over his pocket knife, the suspect stabbed him repeatedly without warning, Rueca added.

The victim ran toward an SFMTA truck that had stopped in the middle of Market Street near Fifth Street.

SFMTA engineer Frank Shreve said he stopped his truck when his co-worker in the passenger seat noticed the attack.

“My partner says, ‘he’s going to kill him! He’s going to kill him!” Shreve told The Chronicle Wednesday. “We witnessed him stab [the victim] like three times.”

When Shreve got out of the truck, the victim ran over and climbed inside to get away from the assailant. The suspect tried to pull the victim from the truck, but Shreve grabbed from behind, threw him on the ground and held him down with the help of a couple bystanders.

By then, the suspect had dropped the knife and was screaming, “it wasn’t me,” Shreve added.

“The [victim] was screaming for his life,” Shreve said. “If he hadn’t jumped into my truck, the [suspect] would have killed him. I just had to do something. I couldn’t just stand there.

“I remember looking at his hands and they were just covered with blood,” Shreve said. “And there was blood under his fingernails.”

A video obtained by The Chronicle showed several people holding the suspect down until police arrived. The footage also captured the victim climbing out of the SFMTA truck breathing heavily and with blood gushing from the stab wound to his neck.

A bicyclist riding by stopped and helped the bleeding man by putting pressure on his wound.

“No one hesitated, no one did it for the glory of it,” Shreve said

Cayla Riley, a security guard with Universal Protection Services, said she ran toward the scene when she heard a fight had broken out.

“I was talking to the victim, telling him to calm down because he was crying,” said Riley, adding that the injured man also had blood running down his back.

Police arrived shortly after Shreve and other bystanders subdued the suspect.

Rueca said the suspect was booked into the San Francisco County Jail and the victim was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani