Finding a man bleeding and unresponsive near the Gilroy High
School stadium wasn’t the way track coach Jeff Myers expected to
begin his Saturday.
Finding a man bleeding and unresponsive near the Gilroy High School stadium wasn’t the way track coach Jeff Myers expected to begin his Saturday.
Myers started his morning before dawn in anticipation of the 40th Annual Avis Kelley Invitational that GHS hosted Saturday. As he pulled into the student parking lot at the high school about 5:20 a.m., he noticed that someone had left the gate open.
“I have no idea why the gate was open,” he said.
As Myers was hanging a welcome sign on one of the fences, he spotted a man lying by the main gate, about 25 yards away.
“He was lying there with one knee up and one arm across his chest,” Myers said. “It was cold. It was really cold that morning. I said, ‘Sir, are you OK?’ He wasn’t responding.”
Myers immediately dialed 911 and waited for police to arrive without getting any closer.
“I didn’t know what the deal was,” Myers said. “I knew it was a bad situation. Once he didn’t respond, I didn’t want to get any closer.”
The victim was a 31-year-old male who was taken to an area trauma center to be treated for multiple stab wounds to his torso and legs, Sgt. Jim Gillio said. The man also had cuts on his head but police could not determine if they were caused by a knife, Gillio said.
Because the victim is still heavily sedated for his serious injuries, police have not been able to interview him and the details of the events leading up to the stabbing remain fuzzy, Gillio said.
“We’re really in the beginning phases of the investigation,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll get more information once he’s not as sedated.”
At this point, it’s unclear if the victim was stabbed at the spot where Myers found him or if he was stabbed elsewhere then dumped at GHS, police said. The motive for the stabbing is also unknown, Gillio said. Police have not determined whether the stabbing was gang-motivated and Gillio did not know what the victim was wearing at the time of the stabbing. The man’s family has been notified of his injuries but it was unclear if the man was a Gilroy resident.
Police showed up at the high school within minutes of Myers’ 911 call and cordoned off the area as a crime scene.
Expecting runners from 53 schools, their families and officials to start arriving around 7 a.m., Myers remembers thinking, “Are you kidding me?” he said.
“Logistically, it was a little hectic” rerouting people to another parking lot, he said. “It wasn’t the smoothest start in the world. But there was nothing I could do about it. It wasn’t your typical morning.”
