A 24-Year-Old Man Stabbed To Death On Monday Night At Duboce Skatepark

San Francisco CA

24 February, 2021

6:23 PM

Description

By Clara-Sophia Daly, Mission Local February 23, 2021 The front entrance to the skatepark, where the 24-year-old lay down on the ground after being stabbed, and before being taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Photo by Clara-Sophia Daly.A stabbing at the SoMa West Skatepark at Duboce Ave and Otis Street on Monday evening left a 24-year-old man critically wounded. He was pronounced dead at the hospital later that night, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Terrel Newell, a 23-year-old professional skateboarder, who was skating at the SoMa skatepark Monday night said he noticed two unhoused people in a blue tent set up on the median underneath the freeway. They were fighting in the tent. At first, he thought one of the individuals was going to get hit by a car. Newell said the 24-year-old who was fatally wounded in the altercation was getting kicked into the street. He had a phone and Newall assumed he was trying to call someone, but the 19-year-old suspect kicked the phone out of his hand. Newell said that the victim was kicked in the face and fell onto the ground. When the victim got up, Newell realized he had been stabbed. "And I was like damn, he's like bleeding a lot, it was a lot of blood." The two men continued arguing, and Newell went back to skateboarding. Newell explained later that he did not call 911 because of the way he grew up. "That's just none of my business. I have seen hella shit, and that is just how it is." Newell also said he knew the man was bleeding and hurt, but he "seemed fine from what I was seeing." Newell said the stabbing victim then came through the door of the skatepark and lay down in the back of the skatepark. A 14-year-old skater said when he arrived at the skatepark at around 8:25 p.m. he saw the victim laying down in the entrance, his face and chest bloody. "My friend was on the phone with the medical fire workers," he said. "His body was just laying right there. He was bleeding, and at first, I didn't know what happened, until my friend told me he got stabbed." He said that then all the other skaters started to come and see what was happening, and the police came around 3-4 minutes later. "They came pretty quick," he added. All the skateboarders Mission Local spoke to at SoMa West Skate Park, and Potrero del Sol skatepark, the two main skateparks in San Francisco, agreed that neither the victim nor the suspect were skateboarders. A 16-year-old skater said, "We're like a family. If it were a skater, everyone would know." The day after the fatal stabbing, the SoMa West Skatepark was filled with skateboarders. Photo by Clara-Sophia Daly. Vic, a 24-year-old skater who comes to the skatepark often, said homeless residents have been "right outside the park on the sidewalk recently," and that he has seen people sleeping inside the park after the lights go off around 9:00 p.m. Police responded to a call at 8:30 p.m. and found the 24-year-old man suffering from an apparent stab wound to his torso. The victim, whose identity has not been released, had no fixed address, according to the police. An investigation determined that the victim had been involved in an altercation during which the victim was stabbed in the torso, police reported. James Christian Moncrief, the 19-year-old suspect who allegedly stabbed the 24-year-old, was booked at the SF County Jail and charged with homicide and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. Moncrief also has no fixed address. According to witnesses, after Moncrief stabbed the victim, he did not flee and was present at the scene of the crime when the police arrived. This story is ongoing. Stay tuned for updates. While an arrest has been made, this remains an active and ongoing investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call the SFPD Tip Line at 1-415-575-4444 or Text a Tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD. You may remain anonymous. Mission Local covers San Francisco from the vantage point of the Mission, a neighborhood with all of the promise and problems of a major city. You can support Mission Local here.