Apple analyst and popular S.F. DJ dies after being stabbed by mob

Joseph Razo, 29, died Tuesday at San Francisco General Hospital from wounds he sustained in a violent stabbing last week outside a nightclub near the city's Tenderloin. Joseph Razo, 29, died Tuesday at San Francisco General Hospital from wounds he sustained in a violent stabbing last week outside a nightclub near the city's Tenderloin. Photo: Engles Photo: Engles Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Apple analyst and popular S.F. DJ dies after being stabbed by mob 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

A weeklong battle for life ended tragically Tuesday for a 29-year-old Apple data analyst and popular DJ who was stabbed along with another man by a mob last month outside a San Francisco nightclub.

Joseph Razo’s close friends and family are hoping police find the killer while grieving their beloved friend, whom they described as “warm and loving.”

“He was my beautiful man,” Razo’s girlfriend of two years, Rhian Humphries, said Wednesday. “It’s beyond surreal. You don’t expect something like this to happen to someone you care about.”

She added that Razo “was one of those people that everyone instantly loved. He was 6-foot-5 but a gentle giant. Everyone wanted to be his friend. He was so warm and loving.”

The attack happened outside the Cellar nightclub at Sutter and Taylor streets in the early morning hours of Jan. 25.

Razo — who spun records at several bars around town — had been out with three friends when the club shut down around 1:45 a.m., police said.

He and a friend started to head off, but noticed their other buddies were being attacked by a mob of at least seven people in front of the nightclub, according to reports from the San Francisco Police Department.

Razo and his friend ran to help and were immediately pulled into the violent fracas. Someone in the crowd then pulled out a knife and began stabbing Razo and his friend before the group of attackers ran off, police said.

Suffering severe wounds to his chest, Razo stumbled around the corner and collapsed on the sidewalk in front of the Bohemian Club on Taylor Street.

Friend recovering

Paramedics took him and his wounded friend to San Francisco General Hospital, where they were treated in the intensive care unit.

Razo’s friend, who was not named by police, has slowly recovered from knife wounds to his liver and intestine. On Friday, he was sent home from the hospital.

But Razo’s injuries were far more serious.

“He was stabbed in the aorta and he had severe internal bleeding,” Humphries, 26, said. “His lungs collapsed. They got those functioning again, and he had daily surgeries for different things.”

She said that Razo fought hard for his life over the next week and that “the doctors kept saying, ‘He’s our miracle boy.’” His family posted dozens of pictures of the young man and his friends along with notes on a bulletin board in his hospital room.

But on Tuesday, Razo took a turn for the worse. Doctors said that his brain activity was affected by loss of oxygen and that his liver failed.

The family decided to remove life support.

“About 40 people were in the hallway” when he died, Humphries said. “I can’t describe how well-loved he was. His dad was there. It was obviously pretty tough. He was suffering.”

No suspects identified

Police have not identified or arrested any suspects in the killing.

“Homicide is looking for anyone who was a witness,” said Sgt. Dennis Toomer, a San Francisco police spokesman. “We’re asking anyone from the public to come forward.”

News of Razo’s death has reverberated through his extended family around the country and in Haiti, where his mother was born.

“He was a really wonderful, beautiful and progressive kid,” said his uncle Engels Souffrant, who lives in New York and works as a professional artist. “He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Razo was born in Brooklyn but grew up in Atlanta. His mother, Souffrant’s sister, worked as an emergency room doctor in Atlanta, where she died from cancer two years ago.

Friends like family

After graduating from high school, Razo went to Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where he studied media technology and Spanish.

Razo later moved to San Francisco, where he shot instructional videos for Academy of Art University and started working as a DJ. He soon had a large group of close friends who were like a family, Humphries said.

In April 2014, he began to contract for Apple as a bilingual data analyst and would take the commuter shuttle to the company’s Cupertino campus from his home in the city’s Western Addition.

Shortly before landing the Apple gig, Razo began dating Humphries, who is originally from the United Kingdom, and the two eventually fell in love.

Razo was supposed to go to Humphries’ home from the Cellar club the morning he was stabbed, but she said he never called. She learned the news the next morning from a friend.

“Joe, I will love you forever and always,” Humphries wrote in a tribute to Razo on her Facebook page. “You will always be in my heart and soul.”

Anyone with information about the killing can call the San Francisco Police Department’s homicide tip line at (415) 431-2127.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky