Beloved 72-year-old store clerk will lose an eye after vicious stabbing attack in San Francisco
By J.R. Stone
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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A San Francisco store clerk will lose his left eye after a vicious attack.
It happened last Wednesday in the Franklin Market on Franklin Street near Bush.
72-year-old Petros Yohannes, who customers call Peter, owns the Franklin Market in San Francisco. While he’s usually smiling, pictures taken in the last week show him recovering in a hospital bed.
“When I heard that news I broke down and started crying because he’s such a good, genuine, kind, decent man and the whole community knows him,” says Edward Lubin who has shopped at Franklin Market for 10 years.
While there have been tears, Petros’s daughter Katerina says they’re trying to remain optimistic, despite the fact that her father doesn’t have health insurance and her mother just got diagnosed with breast cancer.
Early last Wednesday, someone tried to unsuccessfully break into their corner store. Hours later a man who wanted to use the bathroom came running in, and pushed Petros, who then tried to pull him out of the store but was viciously attacked.
“My dad isn’t exactly sure when the weapon was pulled but the only thing he remembers is feeling a sharp sharp pain in his left eye,” says Katerina who continued, “There were a lot of blows to his head, he’s constantly complaining of these headaches and sharp pains in the front of his head.”
Katerina confirms her dad was stabbed three times, including once in the left eye and will lose his eye because of that.
Petros says the attacker was caught on surveillance camera leaving. Police and the DA aren’t commenting, but insiders say there are leads in the case. Katerina says San Francisco has changed since her dad emigrated here from East Africa 25 years ago and it is heartbreaking to see.
“We’re hoping they do find the assailant and get him behind bars as soon as possible because we don’t wish this on anyone else,” says Yohannes.
Lubin says he and community members in San Francisco deserve better, so these type of crimes don’t continue to happen.
“For something to happen where somebody comes in, not only rams the car in there that day, and then stabs him, is beyond my level of comprehension of the city I live in,” says Lubin.
As mentioned above, Petros Yohannes doesn’t have health insurance and the family has started a GoFundMe page for those interested in helping him. He will lose his left eye and his daughter tells us his right eye is now also having problems.
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