A Gilroy man is in custody this morning and charged with
attempted murder for his part in an alleged gang-related stabbing
on East Eighth Street near the Pacheco Pass Motel Friday
evening.
Stabbing is first major gang-related incident on east Eighth Street in six months
GILROY – A Gilroy man is in custody this morning and charged with attempted murder for his part in an alleged gang-related stabbing on East Eighth Street near the Pacheco Pass Motel Friday evening.
Gerardo Ortiz, 20, was arrested Friday night by Gilroy police officers for allegedly beating and stabbing a rival gang member. Police said Ortiz, who lives at 8170 Church St., is a Sureño gang member; his victim, whose name or age is not being released by police, is believed to be a Norteño gang member.
According to police, the victim was able to eventually break away from the group of suspects who were assaulting him and flee to a nearby apartment complex to summon help.
Following the incident the victim was taken by Life Flight to a Santa Clara Valley Medical Center where he was listed in stable condition, according to police, who did not have an update on the victim’s status this morning.
Police are still looking into the involvement of several other alleged Sureño gang members in the beating and stabbing that occurred around 6:30 p.m. Friday near the intersection of East Eighth and Old Gilroy streets, just southeast of Eliot Elementary School.
“We know there was a group of suspects involved in the beating,” GPD Sgt. Kurt Svardal said. “Right now it is still an open investigation so I can’t say if there will be additional arrests.”
Thanks to witness information, police were able to identify and arrest Ortiz shortly after the incident Friday night, but they were not able to determine the role of the other suspects involved.
Ortiz remains in county jail in San Jose this morning on a $100,000 bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the South County Courthouse in San Martin, at which time prosecutors could file an additional felony charge due to Ortiz committing a violent crime for gang-related reasons.
Friday’s stabbing is the first major incident of gang-related violence in the East Eighth Street neighborhood reported by police since an Oct. 6 non-fatal shooting of a Gilroy man with alleged Norteño ties. The area is known as a Sureño stronghold in Gilroy, although the city has long been dominated by Norteño gang factions.
“East Eighth Street is generally considered a Sureño neighborhood,” Svardal said. “But it’s hard to say these days because there aren’t set boundaries like there use to be. (The GPD’s Anti-Crime Team) has been so proactive in these neighborhoods with gang problems that the boundaries aren’t so black and white anymore – sometimes we have rival-gang members living next door to each other.”
In November the GPD initiated its STOP (Stop Trespassing on Public Property) program in the 400 and 500 blocks of East Eighth Street.
The program essentially gives police permission from the property owners of the five large apartment complexes on East Eighth Street to make contact with citizens on the private apartment grounds without contacting the property owner first. It will also allow police to arrest non-tenants for trespassing or loitering on the grounds.
Police said the move was essential in preventing the loitering and trespassing by non-neighborhood residents that often lead to gang activity.
