By Ellen Huet
The San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — A South San Francisco man has been arrested for allegedly intentionally ramming a state firefighter at a Geary Boulevard gas station early Thanksgiving, San Francisco police said Wednesday.
Eduardo Shaparo Esquivel, 22, was arrested shortly before midnight Tuesday in the attack on 29-year-old Albert Bartal of San Francisco.
A San Francisco police officer recognized Esquivel in surveillance video of the suspect that was taken before the attack, said Sgt. Michael Andraychak, a police spokesman.
The incident began about 2:45 a.m. Thanksgiving Day when Esquivel and Bartal got into an argument in a Jack in the Box restaurant at Geary and 11th Avenue, police said. The men left the restaurant, and Bartal walked to a Shell gas station two blocks away.
Witnesses saw Esquivel get into a black sport utility vehicle, possibly a Mazda CX or a Ford Edge, and deliberately run down Bartal before fleeing the scene, police said.
Bartal, a seasonal firefighter with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s San Mateo-Santa Cruz unit, suffered a traumatic brain injury. He remains in critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital, Andraychak said.
Police have not found the SUV, which is likely to have front-end damage, Andraychak said. Esquivel is being held on suspicion of mayhem, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and assault with great bodily injury, all felonies.