Third arrest in Analy grad's killing

<p>A third young man was arrested Sunday in connection with the stabbing death of a 21-year-old man during a brawl at a weekend house party in Santa Rosa, police said.</p><p>Matthew Timothy O'Day, 19, of Santa Rosa was booked on suspicion of murder and being held without bail at Sonoma County Jail.</p><p>Santa Rosa police still are investigating the circumstances that left Benjamin Herbert Floriani dead and two unnamed men critically wounded.</p><p>Witnesses contacted Sunday described a festive party in a Blair Place town house complex that started late Friday and turned into a bloody nightmare early Saturday.</p><p>"I've never seen anything like that," said 19-year-old Florence "Victoria" Ayers, who attended the party. "Half the people there went into shock."</p><p>She didn't know what prompted the violence.</p><p>On Sunday, thick blood still covered the steps leading into the town house, which is near Stony Point Road and West Ninth Street, and police technicians were still gathering evidence. Efforts to locate the residents were unsuccessful.</p><p>The surviving stabbing victims were described by witnesses as young men in their late teens or early 20s. Their injuries initially were described by police as life-threatening but they now are expected to survive, Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Lisa Banayat said Sunday. For a second day, police declined to provide their names.</p><p>Two men already were in custody before O'Day's arrest.</p><p>Alex Paul Hopper, 20, of Santa Rosa was booked in Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of murder and held without bail. Noah Minuskin, 19, of Santa Rosa was being held as a suspected accessory to murder with bail set at $500,000.</p><p>All three suspects are scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.</p><p>Police offered no details about what linked any of the men to the stabbings or when O'Day, arrested a day after the other two, became a suspect.</p><p>Witnesses said a group of men began arguing inside the town house where as many as 50 people attended a party.</p><p>"There was a strobe light going, and it was hard to see what was going on," Ayers said. "I just heard something about a knife."</p><p>Ayers said she fled to the far side of the living room.</p><p>"And then you look over and there is someone falling to the ground," Ayers said. "The whole group kind of drifted outside through the front door. Left behind them were people laying on the ground covered in blood.</p><p>"It was too horrible," she said. "I don't want to remember."</p><p>By the time police arrived shortly after 1 a.m., Banayat said, Floriani was dead on the living room floor.</p><p>Floriani, who grew up in Sebastopol and graduated from Analy High School in 2004, was in town visiting family. He was living in Richmond and attending San Francisco State University, where he was majoring in business.</p><p>"We certainly are grieving the loss of our loved one," said Ron Floriani, an uncle who spoke for the family. "Our regards go out to the other two kids who are hurt and their families."</p><p>He also extended condolences to the families of the suspects.</p><p>"Our hearts are out to those families because we can imagine what they are going through, too," Floriani said.</p><p>The sister of suspect Alex Hopper said her family was suffering and denied his involvement.</p><p>"Knowing these boys, there is no way," Christine Busco said. "He says he doesn't know what happened."</p><p>Busco said her brother graduated from Santa Rosa High School and was not in a gang.</p><p>Police have not ruled out the possibility the violence was gang-related, Banayat said. She declined to provide details of how the fight started, citing the need to keep details private while the investigation unfolds.</p><p>Police are looking for more witnesses and have not ruled out the possibility of additional suspects, she said.</p><p>"We're looking into all possibilities," Banayat said.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Nathan Halverson at 521-5494 or nathan.halverson@pressdemocrat.com.</p>