GILROY
– Police armed with automatic rifles and hard-sniffing dogs
searched a densely populated rest stop and residential area on
south Monterey Road Wednesday afternoon, hunting for a suspect who
only minutes before stabbed a man in the throat and back.
Acting on witness accounts that the stabbing suspect fled on
foot to the nearby Garlic Farm RV Park just south of the Garlic
Farm Plaza and Inn at 5920 Travel Park Circle, police searched
several RVs, all occupied rooms at the Garlic Farm Inn, local
public restrooms and a nearby field blanketed in shoulder-high
grass for more than two hours.
GILROY – Police armed with automatic rifles and hard-sniffing dogs searched a densely populated rest stop and residential area on south Monterey Road Wednesday afternoon, hunting for a suspect who only minutes before stabbed a man in the throat and back.
Acting on witness accounts that the stabbing suspect fled on foot to the nearby Garlic Farm RV Park just south of the Garlic Farm Plaza and Inn at 5920 Travel Park Circle, police searched several RVs, all occupied rooms at the Garlic Farm Inn, local public restrooms and a nearby field blanketed in shoulder-high grass for more than two hours. Despite the intense search, which included a Morgan Hill officer and a Santa Clara County Sheriffs deputy, they didn’t get their man.
Meanwhile, south Monterey Road near Travel Park Circle was blocked to traffic and turned into an impromptu helicopter landing pad so the stabbing victim, bleeding intensely from his throat, could be flown by CALSTAR to San Jose Medical Center. South Monterey Road transformed into a scene from the TV show “COPS.”
As of press time today, the suspect remains at large, while his victim – Michael Reese of Hollister – lies in the intensive care unit at the San Jose Medical Center, according to Gilroy police.
Reese went into emergency surgery at SJM yesterday afternoon and is likely to recover from the stab wounds, one of which missed his jugular by less than an inch, said a paramedic on the scene.
Wednesday afternoon’s scene left residents of the RV park and customers of the several nearby gas stations and fast food restaurants on edge.
“I saw (Reese) running toward us, blood was all over his throat and he was coughing blood,” said Gabrielle Lopez, who was at the Chevron Gas Station at 5887 Monterey Road at about 1:45 p.m. She saw Reese running toward her followed by a trail of blood on the street after being stabbed near his red 1997 Chevrolet Camaro. The car was parked approximately 100 yards south of the Chevron on Monterey Road.
“I took off my sweater and told him to wrap it around his neck,” said Lopez, who lives in the RV park across the street where the suspect fled. “Blood kept shooting out, so I thought maybe he had an artery cut. It was scary, but he seemed pretty calm.”
Another area resident, Samson Guardado, saw the suspect flee from the Camaro parked on Monterey Road and jump over a four-foot fence into the RV park.
Guardado tried to follow the man but lost him in the park and then alerted arriving police to the direction the suspect fled.
At least 10 members of the Gilroy Police Department, a Morgan Hill police officer and K-9 dog, along with a county sheriff already in the area cordoned off a two-square-mile perimeter between the Garlic Farm Truck Stop to the north, Zen’s Flower Garden Shop to the south, Monterey Road to the west and the Union Pacific train tracks to the east. The RV Park was included in the area, and officers searched several RVs, parked vehicles and large dumpsters for suspect.
South of the RV park in the large field of tall grass, police were posted on all sides of the muddy field. They combed the grass with binoculars and two police dogs scoured through the grassy area for the suspect.
“If we had more bodies we could’ve done covered more area, but we didn’t,” GPD Cpl. Veronica Georges said. “We checked everything we could, but unfortunately he got away.”
No weapon has been recovered by police.
Police have not determined a motive for the Wednesday afternoon’s violence, although one witness on the scene said she spoke to Reese while he awaited medical attention and Reese told her the man who stabbed him was “his friend.”
“We don’t know if (Reese) was a random victim or not,” GPD Detective John Marfia said. “It could very well be that he is an acquaintance of the victim, and we’re hoping that’s the case instead of this being a random robbery or attack.”
The stabbing took place outside of Reese’s Camaro parked on the side of Monterey Road, Marfia said. The vehicle was later towed by police, and Reese has only a “very minor” criminal history, Marfia said.
Police will interview Reese for more information on the incident when his condition allows, which could be as early as tonight, Marfia said.
According to witness accounts, the stabbing suspect is described at a 35-year-old Latino male who was wearing a light-colored jacket.
“There is a lot of unknown right now,” Marfia said. “We won’t get a lot of answers until we can get some help from the victim.”
