Photo: Getty Images

As the Subway staffer stabbed Wednesday by 26-year-old Nicholas Flusche recovers at home, Flusche's family is "in shock" following his fatal shooting by the police officer who intervened in the attack.

As previously reported, witnesses say that Flusche stabbed an unidentified employee at the Subway restaurant at 940 Market Street at 11:22 a.m. Wednesday. Two San Francisco Police Officers who were walking a foot beat happened upon the altercation, and one of them fired at Flusche, killing him.

Since that day, additional details have been released on the victim, the incident, the man who was shot, and the police officer who did the shooting. Here's what we know:

It all began when Flusche allegedly refused to pay for a sandwich

According to NBC Bay Area, who spoke with witness Kevin Ramsay:

Flusche walked into the Subway restaurant and asked the employee to make him a sandwich, but refused to pay for it, at which point the employee told him: "No money, no sandwich." The suspect then pulled out his knife, and started attacking him, sources said.

"I see this guy behind the counter just stabbing the clerk, so he needed help, and I helped him," Ramsey said. "He was covered in blood head to toe. I grabbed his arm and held it, and we fought for (the knife) till the cops came in the door to do with they had to."

"The cops came in and told us all to get down, and he wasn't complying, so I'm not gonna get down," Ramsey said. "So I pushed him away from me and got out of the way, and he came after the cop, and the cop did what he had to do and shot one time."

The cop who shot Flusche was also behind SFPD's last shooting, in January

The shooting of Sean Moore, a mentally ill man who was unarmed when shot by San Francisco Police Department Officer Kenneth Cha, raised eyebrows at the time for the discrepancy between police accounts of the shooting and what body camera footage reflected. In a bail hearing for Moore Thursday, Deputy Public Defender Brian Pearlman said that it was Cha who also shot Flusche.

“I have a source that I trust that has verified that it is Cha,” Pearlman told the Ex. “It definitely troubles me." According to the Chron, "Cha was previously assigned to the police department’s Taraval Station, he was transferred to the Tenderloin after the January shooting."

Nicholas Flusche has recently moved here from Texas, seemed like a regular guy

The Ex reports that Flusche "was from a Texas suburb and had recently relocated to the Bay Area," and had "attended Texas State University in San Marcos near Austin and had previously worked for a home security company." He'd moved to SF "to start a fitness and nutrition business," a friend said.

“Nick was always the person who was trying to solve problems,” a former roommate told the Ex. The stabbing "doesn’t sound like Nick at all. He was a great dude...He was a southern gentleman.”

The Chron reports that Flusche "didn’t finish his studies" at Texas State and "ended up working in sales for a surveillance company in San Antonio." He was "fired from that job three years ago," then "'fell off the grid' among his group of friends. It was unclear how long he'd been in SF.

“We are still kind of in shock," his father, Phillip Flusche told the Chron.

The victim is recovering at home

It's always odd in cases like this that so much ink is spilled on the attacker, while the victim appears to go nearly unnoticed. He hasn't publicly identified himself, which at this point is likely his choice and should be respected. According to the SFPD, he "was treated and released from San Francisco General Hospital late Wednesday evening, 5/3/17."

Via an email sent Thursday, a PR representative for Go Fund Me wrote "I wanted to make sure you had seen this GoFundMe campaign for the family of Nicholas Flusche."

When asked by SFist about the decision to promote the campaign, given the sensitive nature of the situation, a different representative of the company responded and said that they "apologize and will definitely share the campaign for the victim if one is created." So, if anyone knows the stabbing victim, please do pass that bit of information along.

Previously: Fatal SFPD Shooting Was Sparked By Argument Over Subway Sandwich

Shooting in front of my work building btw 5th & 6th on Market and they...evacuate us? Seems like a shelter in place situation. pic.twitter.com/4S3QIux9iz

— Whitney Merrill (@wbm312) May 3, 2017

A fatal police shooting that froze the center of San Francisco Wednesday had its roots in an argument over a Subway-brand sandwich, a witness says.

As you likely know, the San Francisco Police Department says that officers walking a footbeat on the 900 block of Market Street at 11:22 a.m. Wednesday "observed a white, male subject stabbing an Asian or Filipino male."

"The officers intervened and at least one officer discharged a firearm," police say, striking the stabbing suspect. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and was identified Thursday morning by the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office as 26-year-old Nicholas Flusche. As of publication time, his city of residence was unknown.

A photo tweeted from the scene depicted a bloody man in a Subway uniform seated on the Market Street curb, spurring rumors that the shooting occurred at the Subway sandwich shop on the same block where the shooting occurred.

Giving weight to the Subway hypothesis, the SF Chronicle reports that "investigators could be seen going in and out of the Subway on Market Street near Turk Street."

ABC 7 reports this morning that the situation began when an "argument between a Subway employee and a man broke out Wednesday morning, possibly over a sandwich."

"All I hear is two dudes arguing and then the cops was showing up," area resident Johney Jimenez tells ABC 7.

"And then they started arguing and telling him to get down. Just like hella nonsense."

Jimenez says ""I heard like two [shots], that's all I heard." He says he also "saw a four-inch knife afterward."

According to SFPD spokesperson Sergeant Michael Andraychak the stabbing victim is currently being treated at an area hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

SFPD's Homicide and Internal Affairs divisions, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Independent Investigations Bureau, the Department of Police Accountability, and the Medical Examiner’s Office are all investigating the shooting.

Speaking with ABC 7, David Salaverry of San Franciscans for Police Accountability says "as soon as we see the body cams we're hoping they're in alignment with what the police have said so far."

"If so, this may have been an unavoidable shooting," he said

As of Thursday morning, however, it's unclear if police body cameras captured the incident. According to ABC 7, investigators pulled video from a Muni bus that passed the incident as it was underway, but no other information on footage from the shooting has been released.

Previously: SFPD Confirms Fatal Police Shooting On Market Street

San Francisco public transit riders can be forgiven for giving in to the occasional fantasy.

Hopeful, even wistful maps of what local transportation might have been or might yet be are widely made and shared: Take, for example, this map of where the streetcars used to go, or this best-case scenario map for Bay Area transit by 2050.

Though we might be inclined view these maps as escapist, city planners say they want to take a cue from them, launching a tool for users to create their own dream subway system for San Francisco. Teaming up with the Planning Department, Muni just unveiled something called The Subway Vision, a kind of interactive transportation vision board, as one aspect a larger transportation blueprint they're referring to as ConnectSF.

Last year, the Board of Supervisors passed Scott Wiener’s Subway Master Plan legislation, directing the city to create a framework for a city-wide subway system. "We need more subways, and we need true regional rail that connects our entire region," Wiener stated in a press release about the new Subway Vision tool. "As the Bay Area grows by two million people in the next 25 years, we cannot afford to have another million cars on our roads, freeways, and bridges. We need more transit, and we need to pursue it aggressively."

How does the Subway Vision fit in? The SFMTA blog explains that "The more we learn about the priorities, concerns and challenges of today’s San Franciscans, the better we can prepare for our future." These submissions, then will serve as the public comment portion of the Subway Master Plan Legislation.

While the tool isn't the easiest to navigate, it's worth a try. I was able to create the below image pretty quickly. But take your time or make as many as you wish: Users have until September 2nd to send in submissions, which will then be analyzed by city transit planners. Just think: If a camel is a horse built by a committee, what kind of amazing transit system can we all come up with together?

Related: Supervisor Wiener Really Set On Subway Construction, Introduces 'Master Plan' Legislation

Apparently, it's not just restaurant and bar owners that are fretting over the impact an increase in minimum wage might have on business! Former San Francisco mayor, now alleged lobbyist and SF Chronicle columnist Willie Brown is joining the opposition camp, suggesting that the pay rate change could harm what he describes as the city's "soft" restaurant business.

Brown worries that, during his recent visits, Bourbon Steak (in the St. Francis Hotel) and the local outpost of restaurant chain Hakkasan were both sparely populated. Between that and the closures of Fleur de Lys and Grand Cafe, Brown frets that "the city needs to pay attention to the opening and closing of restaurants."

"We need to ask: Why are they closing?"

SFist's Jay Barmann, who's covered every beat of the SF restaurant scene for years, has an answer for Brown: progress. Regarding Fleur de Lys, Barmann says that after the venue's 44 year run, "That style of dining is dying everywhere." As for Hakkasan, maybe the "generally mediocre food" is behind its emptiness.

"The San Francisco restaurant scene is flooded with options right now," Barmann says. "There is always a process of attrition, especially with outdated concepts and older spots whose best days are behind them."

Brown, however, seems to believe that the way SF approaches the industry might be to blame. "The proposed minimum wage applied to restaurant waiters is ridiculous," Brown says, echoing restaurant and bar owners who spoke with his publication earlier this week. Those folks were dismayed by Mayor Ed Lee's proposal to let voters decide to gradually raise San Francisco's minimum wage to $15/hour by 2018, saying that these servers are already being tipped and don't need the hourly rate increase.

"At Hakkasan, for example, if six people are in the party there’s a 20 percent mandatory gratuity," Brown says. "Waiters don’t need a higher minimum wage."

But of course, there's an exception to even that decree, one we continue to find deeply suspicious. According to Brown, "The guy behind the counter at Subway" has a right to "the higher minimum wage." What is it with Chronicle columnists and Subway?

[Inside Scoop]

As Central Subway construction continues to bore it's way from AT&T Park to Chinatown, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and the Municipal Transportation Agency are proposing another subterranean transit solution for the slow-plodding M-Ocean View line along 19th Avenue.

After a feasibility study, the two agencies are recommending the M-Ocean View head underground near St. Francis Circle and pass by two new underground stations at Stonestown Galleria and S.F. State, which will reduce travel times by 35 to 45 percent and free up space on the surface roads for bus loading or bike paths. Besides sliding under the mess of traffic on 19th Avenue, where the M-line averages a leisurely eight or nine miles per hour, a subway would save students, shoppers and commuters the hassle of crossing three lanes of traffic to get to the Muni Metro platforms in the median.

According to the study, the project would cost anywhere from $520 million to $780 million (or even higher as transit projects are rarely under budget). The project could be completed by 2022, assuming funding is secured. At the moment there's a $1.8 million commitment from S.F. State to help pay for a new station and the developers behind the re-designed Parkmerced complex are also on board. In general, any improvements to the line will be necessary if the area is to get any more dense.

Speaking of Parkmerced, the development plans call for a new Muni Metro station inside the neighborhood complex, which will require another study entirely. And finally, for an additional $200-300 million, the SFMTA could extended the M-Ocean View all the way to meet BART at the Daly City Station.

[Chron]

Everyone's favorite transit agency is set to test out another pilot program that will (hopefully) make the lives of thousands of daily commuters slightly more bearable. Starting next month, Muni will allow double-train loading and three-car trains on the Muni Metro light rail system.

Like last year's successful back door boarding experiment, the two programs are such a no-brainer that we can't help but wonder what took them so long to get it moving. According to Muni's Transit Director John Haley, it was a software issue. The computer system that controls Muni trains in the underground wasn't actually equipped for parking two trains on those long station platforms, which explains why 80% of every station feels like such a waste of space. With "double-berthing" two trains can board on the same platform at the same time. (Also: no more of that thing where the train pulls into the station and has to frustratingly wait until it the one in front can pull out in order to let you off.)

As Haley told Streetsblog this week, they've got all the bugs worked out of the software, but they haven't put it to the test with actual trains yet. Live tests are expected to start next week or early October and if everything goes smoothly

Of course, things at Muni hardly ever go smoothly, so now would be a good time to start the betting pool on when we'll see a Muni-on-Muni collision in the underground.

In addition to speeding up things with multiple trains in a station at once, Muni will also be increasing capacity along Market Street by running a three-car shuttle train between Embarcadero Station and West Portal, like a faster F-Market for cave people.

[Streetsblog]

Because Muni can go to hell, the city's public transit snafu will run reduced service during the last week of the year. This is the first time ever that Muni has done such a thing. Great. Muni will run its Saturday schedule on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Which blows for many of us who have to work next week. (What, you don't get the week off to spend at your vineyard in Anderson Valley? Peasant.)

What does this mean? It means that San Francisco doesn't care much about public transportation. But you knew that already. Ron Austin, spokesman for the Transport Workers Union Local 250-A that represents Muni operators, tells SF Examiner, "The SFMTA management makes these decisions and sits in their office ... We’re on the frontline and we bear all the brunt for people’s frustration with the system. But this isn’t even about us—it’s about riders not getting their fair due.”

This is all because, according to SF MTA, Muni is poor, faces a $7 million deficit, spent $1.6 million on a program to get kids to ride for free, and why can't you just get a car or bike already? Plebeians. However, as Supervisor Scott Wiener accurately points out in the same Ex article, shit like this will continue unless we get serious about funding the agency.

[SFEx]

San Francisco's most cultured food eater, former Mayor Willie Brown went outside his comfort zone recently. Meaning his girlfriend took him out for dim sum at the city's decorated house of dumplings, Yank Sing on Stephenson Street. And how was his experience? "I was in a hurry," he writes in this week's Inside Scoop column, "I wanted to go to Subway."

But Da Mayor, who continues to namedrop his favorite fresh eating franchise was denied his usual footlong spicy Italian. Instead, Willie and girlfriend Sonya Molodetskaya spent a good 35 to 40 minutes fawning over the steaming baskets of dumplings, resulting in a limp description of his dinner:

Everything came in a wrapping and we could eat only with our chopsticks. We also had various pork, beef and shrimp dumplings, then came another cart with lidless baskets filled with deep fried shrimp, spring rolls and other fried foods, all of which came to our table.

To paraphrase: "Everything was food and it all came to our table." Anyhow, if you're looking for a sexier description of the dim sum experience, we might suggest Tom Limoncelli's excellent treatise: Dim Sum and Polyamory — two things Willie can now say he has experience with.

Previously: Willie Brown Name Checks Subway (Again)
[InsideScoop]

"Outbound" by RyanAmazing.

For whatever curious reason, former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown loves Subway sandwiches. And he likes to mention it. A lot. Today, the charismatic $5 foot-long deep throater wrote about his three favorite dishes around town. In addition to lavishing praise on the barbecue at MoMo's and melted cheese and ham fritter at Trader Vic's, Brown coos:

Then finally, believe it or not, the spicy Italian foot long Subway sandwich on brown bread, toasted, covered with everything from the garden fray, with just a touch of mustard, mayonnaise, oil and vinegar. The proper salt and pepper sprinkling completes the standard experience.

Oh, we believe it.

[Inside Scoop]

It's no big secret that our illustrious former mayor likes to namedrop touchstones of society life. Hermes, McCalls, Kokkari, Getty, Shulz, ad nauseum - It's like a trail of breadcrumbs that lead you to the foot of his opulent lifestyle. (Where you can kiss his alligator-skin shoes, probably.) But this week's InsideScoop column titled "How to Survive a Banquet? Head to Subway" is not just a break from character for the man who gilded city hall, it might also be the clearest evidence we have that the teflon-coated former occupant of Room 200 is still on the take. So this week, we're breaking from our usual format to provide the following open letter to Willie Brown.

Dear Da Mayor,

As loyal followers of your columns for the Chronicle and Inside Scoop, we here at SFist have been enjoying your twice-weekly ruminations on politics, the society life, movies, and of course - dining out. However, we have started to notice a troubling pattern with your frequent mentions of the popular Subway Sandwiches chain of restaurants. You mention at the start of this week's Inside Scoop post that you've "become a critic of banquets." We've noticed this as well, actually - by our count high-end local caterer McCall's has been mentioned at least twice a month since we've started keeping score roughly six months ago. We have no qualms with this, by the way, it's perfectly reasonable to use your favorite catering company as the high water mark by which you judge the competition.

Instead, our lean and tender roast beef is with the flagrant endorsement of Subway sandwiches that has twice (twice!) floated that company's logo across our browser windows like the scent of fresh baked Hearty Italian Bread drifting on a San Francisco breeze. This week you claim that no caliber of banquet food, neither Marriott, nor Fairmont, nor Ritz Carlton can appease your discerning palate and thus you opt to drop in to a local Subway francise to "destroy" your appetite.

Previously, back in October you stacked the praise high like a three-meat Subway club when you told us, "Don't have time for a proper meal? Try Subway." As you wrote in a paragraph that appeared next to a promotional photo of what looks to be a 6-inch Turkey Breast and Black Forest Ham sandwich:

Monday night football interrupts my dinner hour. My recommendation is try a Subway sandwich, maybe spicy Italian on whole wheat bread, toasted with cheddar cheese and every form of vegetable in the place except onions. Then add a little sprinkle of Dijon, mayo, oil and vinegar and you won’t care who wins. Man was it good; $5 for a foot long.

While we recognize those words could be entirely your own and not, in fact, provided by Subway's social media marketing team, we would still like to take this moment to remind you of the Federal Trade Commission's guidelines for endorsements and testimonials. This section in particular:

...advertisers and endorsers may be liable for failure to disclose material connections between the advertiser and endorsers. The revised Guides also make it clear that celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media.

Since you're a celebrity first and a blogger second, we thought that section would resonate with you. Should you shun your celebrity status, however, you should know the same holds true for bloggers who aren't paid by their publications. As we're told Inside Scoop contributors aren't.

In conclusion, we don't mind one bit that you enjoy the company of a Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich now and then. We all occasionally succumb to temptation when faced with a fresh, toasted 12-incher lovingly crafted by a local sandwich artist. We'd just like you to be forthcoming with us about your relationship.

Sincerely,
The Editorial Staff of SFist.com

P.S. Totally loved your review of Fast Five. You're right, after four tries they totally nailed it!