After Monday’s fatal stabbing in San Francisco’s Excelsior district, residents have announced that starting tonight, they are holding candlelit vigils every Sunday until city officials create an action plan to curb violence in the neighborhood.
Eric Buschman, 49, was stabbed to death while unloading his truck in front of his house on Athens Street on Monday, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
Buschman is the city’s 39th homicide this year and one of at least six people killed in the Excelsior district since March of 2008.
The June 2008 triple-murder of Tony Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16, occurred in the Excelsior district on Congdon Street. The father and his sons were shot and killed on their way home from a picnic in Fairfield on June 22, 2008. Police believe a member of the MS-13 gang mistook them for rival gang members.
The residents organizing tonight’s vigil said they hope to not only honor Buschman, but to show their outrage at the violence and draw attention to a problem that “will not go away.”
The vigil will be held at 8 p.m. at the corner of Athens Street and Excelsior Avenue.
