Gilroy – A 19-year-old man was stabbed Wednesday evening outside
a Seventh Street apartment complex by a stranger who asked him,
”
Are you Sure
ño?
”
Gilroy – A 19-year-old man was stabbed Wednesday evening outside a Seventh Street apartment complex by a stranger who asked him, “Are you Sureño?”
Police are withholding the victim’s name, and declined to describe his condition, other than to say that his injuries weren’t life-threatening.
The teen, who is mentally disabled, was standing outside his apartment at 601 E. Seventh Street, where he lives with his mother. A 10-year-old girl, playing nearby, watched as two young men with shaved heads drove up to the complex in a white car that looked like a Toyota. A pale-skinned man got out, and approached the boy, who wore a blue T-shirt and pants.
“Are you Sureño?” the man asked, according to witnesses near the scene. Sureño gang members often wear blue; they are typically Mexican-born and Spanish-speaking. Their enemies, Norteños, are U.S.-born and wear red. Recalling the incident, the girl said the man wore a jacket with red designs. The long sleeves of his jacket concealed his hands.
“No soy de nada,” the teen replied: I’m not anything.
Then, the girl said, lowering a knife from his sleeve, he stabbed the boy in the back, and the two men drove away. It was nearly 5pm.
“This has never happened here before,” said the girl’s mother, who didn’t give her name, fearing retribution from gangs. “It’s a safe area, full of responsible, working families. There’s no drugs, no gang members. This boy – he’s never had problems with people.”
Seven officers sped to the scene, where the teen was rushed to an area trauma center. Police said the department’s Anti-Crime Team is investigating the stabbing as a gang-related incident, based on the statements of half a dozen witnesses. The suspects are described as two men, age 20 to 23, with shaved heads, one Hispanic, one “white or very light-complected Hispanic,” said Gilroy Police Sgt. Kurt Svardal. They drove an older-model white “Toyota-type vehicle.”
“It doesn’t look like the victims themselves have any association with gangs,” Svardal said, echoing neighbors who described the victim as a sweet, slow boy, a teen who didn’t drink, gang-bang or use drugs. “This sort of violence is the reason the Anti-Crime Team exists … Gang members fighting each other is bad [enough], but when it’s citizens not involved in gangs, that’s another thing.”
