Man stabbed in SoMa alley, suspect still at large

The stabbing left a 42-year-old man with life-threatening injuries in a narrow SoMa alley, and police were still searching for the attacker days later. The assault happened about 10:15 p.m. Monday, April 20, in the 400 block of Stevenson Street, just off Sixth Street between Market Street and 5th Street.

The man was taken to a hospital in critical condition, and an update on his status was not immediately available. Police said the suspect fled and remains at large. The only description released was that the person is a man in his 40s, leaving investigators with little to go on as they try to piece together what happened in the alley corridor.

The block where the stabbing happened sits in a part of South of Market long associated with late-night disorder, drug activity and repeated public-safety complaints. That history makes any violent attack there land with extra force: it is not just a single assault, but another test of whether Sixth Street and the blocks just off it have become safer for people moving through the area after dark.

The case also comes after months of stepped-up city attention on the corridor. On January 27, 2025, the San Francisco Police Department said it made 218 arrests in 30 days along the 6th Street corridor as part of focused enforcement tied to the Drug Market Agency Coordination Center. In September, Mayor Daniel Lurie cut the ribbon on the Sixth Street Pedestrian Safety Project, a multi-year streetscape and sidewalk effort meant to improve safety and accessibility on the street.

City leaders have also been pushing a consolidated street-team model that brings together work across five departments, including neighborhood-based outreach under the Integrated Neighborhood Street Teams approach. Even with those efforts, the Stevenson Street stabbing underscored how quickly violence can still flare on a block that remains central to San Francisco’s debate over street conditions, public safety and who feels secure walking through SoMa at night.

Police are asking anyone with information to call 415-575-4444 or send an anonymous text tip to TIP411 with the keyword SFPD.