A San Francisco shopkeeper has been left fighting for his life in the hospital after a brutal assault on Thursday, his daughter told The Standard.
Richmond Market store clerk Yohannes “John” Tewolde was pushed to the ground and beaten with a baseball bat after confronting a suspected thief in the store, his eldest daughter, Meron Tewolde said.
“He is brain-dead,” Tewolde said. “My dad was just trying to do the right thing. My dad stood up in front of him; the guy pushed my dad and smashed his head with a baseball bat.”
A San Francisco Police Department spokesperson confirmed the incident and said no arrests have been made yet.
“The suspect confronted the victim, who was holding a bat,” a police spokesperson said. “The suspect assaulted the victim, took the bat from the victim, then struck the victim with the bat. The suspect then threw the bat at another victim and fled the scene in an unknown sedan. The second victim was not injured during this incident.”
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Yohannes “John” Tewolde, pictured with his wife, was allegedly assaulted on Thursday and is suffering from serious head injuries. | Source: Courtesy Tewolde family
Now, concerned residents in the Richmond District are banding together to support Tewolde. Two neighbors began a GoFundMe campaign, which passed its $25,000 goal before 9 a.m. Tuesday morning.
One of the creators of the GoFundMe, Tom Imrey, said he had just gotten home when he saw first responders at the Richmond Market. After dropping some items off at home, Imrey said he returned to the market to see paramedics working on Tewolde.
After Imrey posted about the attack on the NextDoor social media platform, another neighbor, Drew Min, reached out to him, and the two began the fundraising campaign with permission from Tewolde’s wife.
“I know him as an honest, hard-working individual,” Min said. “Anyone who lives in that neighborhood and visited that store probably met with John.”
In a statement posted Sunday to the GoFundMe page, Min said he visited the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and learned from family members that Tewolde was still in critical condition.
Tewolde grew up in Eritrea and lived in Canada for seven years before moving to the United States in 2013, his daughter said. He is a father of two and has been married for 28 years.
“He takes care of me,” Tewolde said. “He takes care of everybody. He sends money to everyone. There’s so many people who are waiting on him to be fed. It’s crazy. I don’t know who’s going to fill his shoes.”
Violent crime in the Outer Richmond neighborhood, which includes aggravated assaults and robberies, has risen slightly since pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
In Outer Richmond, there were 71 violent crime incidents in the 12 months before Aug. 26, 2023, compared with 64 during the same time period ending in August 2019, according to police incident data analyzed by The Standard.
Citywide, the number of violent crime incidents has dropped since pre-pandemic 2019, from 59 to 57 incidents per 10,000 residents.
Police incident data includes calls to police and reports filed by officers when attending incidents.
