SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 7.19.2025
A quick glance at the San Francisco Chronicle provides a depressing and sorry snapshot of the world in 2025.
A beloved 29 year old teacher from Riordan High School in San Francisco is brutally assaulted while on vacation in Italy.
A public defender is assaulted by a former client in front of the Sonoma County Courthouse.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 7.19.2025
Popular S.F. teacher and coach brutally attacked and robbed while visiting Italy
The thought kept flashing through Nicholas Pellegrino’s mind as he sat on a train station outside of Milan, blood pouring from his throat.
If the 29-year-old San Francisco high school teacher and track coach didn’t get help soon, he was going to die.
“I had no doubt about that in my mind,” he said. “It’s a feeling of helplessness that I don’t wish on my worst enemy.”
Moments before, several passengers had attacked him, slashing his throat with a knife and robbing him.
Pellegrino, who teaches religion at San Francisco’s Archbishop Riordan High School, had traveled to Italy this month for vacation. He was looking forward to seeing relatives and friends in northern Italy.
On July 15, he’d caught a train just before noon from Melegnano, a Milanese suburb, bound for Florence. But the moment he stepped on the train, something felt off.
A few seats down, several passengers kept staring at him — then quickly looking away whenever they saw him looking back. As the train rolled into the next stop, one of them rushed him, swinging a knife.
With blood pouring from his neck, the thieves ripped the crucifix he was wearing and grabbed his backpack and luggage.
Bay Area public defender beaten and robbed by former client, police say
A former client has been arrested in an attack on a Sonoma County public defender, according to the Santa Rosa Police Department.
Leon Simms, 44, was booked into Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of robbery, attempted kidnapping, criminal threats and battery causing serious injury in the attack, police said.
Officers responded to a report of an assault outside the Sonoma County Courthouse at 12:37 p.m. Thursday, police said. Simms, who had fled the scene, struck the victim several times in the face, stole personal property, and threatened further violence and kidnapping, police said.
Top photo: Nicholas Pellegrino being treated by paramedics after having his throat slashed while riding on a train while vacationing in Italy
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