SFPD looking for driver of stolen SUV involved in Fisherman's Wharf hit-and-run

SAN FRANCISCO - A hotel housekeeping room attendant is recovering in the hospital after being struck by a hit-and-run driver in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood.

The collision happened around 4:25 p.m. Monday afternoon, as Tracy Ma, a housekeeping room attendant at the Argonaut Hotel was leaving work with multiple coworkers, the hotel's managing director said.

Ma was walking across the crosswalk at Columbus Avenue and Beach Street, the last in her group of coworkers to cross, when she was struck, Stefan Mühle, the area managing director for Noblehouse Hotels and Resorts said.

Ma's son granted KTVU permission to identify Ma and share her photo, while police have not yet released identifying details about the woman who was struck, other than noting that she is 50 years old and lives in Fremont.

San Francisco Police are still looking for the driver of a white Infinity SUV that struck Ma. They say the SUV was stolen, and that the California license plate 7MJJ084 is also believed to have been involved in auto burglaries in the Fisherman's Wharf area prior to the hit and run incident, according to police.

"We're all family, ‘work-family,’ that's what we call ourselves," Mühle said. "To have something like this happen is crushing. It's heartbreaking."

He added that Ma had worked at the Argonaut hotel for 15 years, and had only returned to work in the last few weeks, as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted and the hotel expanded capacity.

"[She was] just trying to make it home safely, and unfortunately, struck by a vehicle," Maurice Borden, facilities director at the American Academy of Ophthalmology, who oversees security cameras from the parking garage Ma was walking toward, said.

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Borden said he turned over surveillance camera footage to police showing three angles that caught the hit-and-run.

He noted that a tourist was struck by a hit-and-run driver in the same intersection within the last two years. 

Ma's condition is non-life-threatening, according to police, and Mühle is optimistic she'll be able to leave the hospital this week and begin to recover from her extensive injuries. He also created a GoFundMe account to help with her medical bills.

"When something like this happens to one of your own it really hits you hard," Mühle said. "But we're pulling together."