Arrest made in fatal SF stabbing of father picking his son up from school

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A father was walking with his son after picking him up from Commodore Sloat Elementary School in San Francisco when the father was attacked, investigators said.

The father, identified by authorities as 35-year-old Robert Paul Byrd II, was stabbed to death by the assailant Wednesday in SF’s Taraval district, police said.

“The homicide was horrific,” Interim SFPD Chief Paul Yep said Friday. “A father who was walking across the street with his son was fatally stabbed in the crosswalk after getting into an altercation with the suspect.”

Officers responded at 4:38 p.m. Sept. 10 to the stabbing on Junipero Serra Boulevard and Ocean Avenue. Byrd was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The father’s assailant evaded police, and about 60 officers were deployed for the investigation.

Detectives later identified 42-year-old Daniel Patrick Rodriguez Jr. as the homicide suspect. They used automated license plate readers, surveillance cameras, a drone, and leads from witnesses to track Rodriguez’s whereabouts, Yep said.

On Friday, shortly before 9 a.m., SFPD officers found and arrested Rodriguez Jr. in Tuolumne County, more than 160 miles east of the city.

Investigators did not describe what led up to the stabbing or provide a potential motive. They did not specify whether the victim and the suspect had a previous relationship.

“We’re not going to share certain details at this time,” said District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. She said the killing was not a random attack.

“What I do want to reassure the public, though, is that this was not a random act of violence by somebody just walking up,” she said.

Although the attack occurred off-campus, San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Maria Su said that the elementary school immediately went into lockdown when they were informed about the stabbing.

“We activated this protocol because we still had students near the place of the incident,” Su said. Those safety measures, which include making sure there is only one point of entry onto campus, were still in place for the Friday school day.

Jenkins said her office will announce charges after thoroughly reviewing the case.

“We do ask for your patience in allowing us to review all of the evidence that still needs to be collected,” Jenkins said. “We do still have outstanding witness interviews that need to happen so that we can make a comprehensive decision about what to do going forward.”

Bay City News contributed to this report.