A boy's horror on his first solo Muni ride

Laila Elfazouzi says she'll never let her son ride Muni again -- not after the 11-year-old was stabbed and critically wounded by an apparently homeless man in an unprovoked attack while riding home from school.

It was the boy's very first time riding the bus alone.

Police have been searching for a "scruffy-looking'' suspect since the attack Tuesday, but haven't had much luck -- in part, because the rear security camera on the 49-Mission bus where the attack occurred was on the fritz.

The boy, Hatim Mansori, had been in the intensive care unit at San Francisco General Hospital after undergoing surgery for a stab wound to his liver and stomach. But today, he was listed in good condition as doctors prepared to move him to another unit.

"He's doing much better,'' hospital spokeswoman Rachael Kagan said.

According to the boy's mother, Hatim -- a sixth-grader at Marina Middle School -- called her after baseball practice to say the team had finished up early and "not to worry, he would take the bus home."

Elfazouzi, a single mother who lives with her three children off Alemany Boulevard, said she was concerned -- and made sure her son repeatedly called her from his cell phone to give progress reports on his ride home.

She spoke to him last as the bus was headed down Mission Street, at about 13th Street.

A short time later, at about 6:10 p.m., Elfazouzi said she tried calling again -- just as her phone rang. This time it was a woman calling from her son's phone at 19th and Mission streets to say he had been hurt.

Elfazouzi said she didn't understand most of the call, other than there was "something about a knife'' and that she needed to get to San Francisco General.

Elfazouzi said doctors performed emergency surgery on her son, and told her that had he arrived five minutes later he would have bled to death.

"It was like something you see on TV -- only it was in this life with my child,'' Elfazouzi said.

Witnesses provided police with a full description of the suspect, who apparently ran off the bus following the attack.

Authorities say they hope to release a composite sketch of the man soon. He is described as a "scruffy-looking'' African American, in his mid-20s to 30s, 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, with dark facial hair. He was wearing a black hoodie, blue jeans and dark shoes, and was described as having "a strong body odor."

But a Muni surveillance tape that might have captured a full view of the man,as well as the attack,turned up blank.

Muni spokesman Judson True told us today that the equipment simply wasn't working. "It's quite unfortunate,'' he said.

As for Elfazouzi, she's furious.

"What happened to my son could happen to anybody -- it doesn't matter the age,'' she said. "Muni is very dangerous."

Police ask anyone with information to call the department's annonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444.

Posted By: Matier and Ross (Email) | September 04 2009 at 04:03 PM