SSU stabbing investigation stalls

Investigation of the weekend stabbings of two non-students at Sonoma State University remained thwarted Monday by the victims’ refusal to talk to police, a school official said.

“Right now the victims are not cooperating with us,” said Susan Kashack, SSU’s associate vice president for communications and marketing. “That makes it difficult.”

The two victims were treated at a Santa Rosa hospital and released following the incident at a private birthday party on campus about 12:20 a.m. Saturday.

There names were not released.

An SSU police officer was assigned to the party at the University Commons, a popular campus venue that SSU had rented to the family of a 19-year-old woman for her birthday celebration, Kashack said. No alcohol was involved, she said.

The university’s policy is to assign an officer to any event expected to draw a crowd of 100 people or more. The party began at 9 p.m. Friday and attracted a larger crowd than expected, Kashack said.

No SSU students, faculty or staff attended the party.

With little else to go on, SSU police are still looking for three suspects, described as black men of medium height and build, 19 to 20 years old, one wearing black dreadlocks and a white T-shirt, Kashack said.

SSU is satisfied with its policies for renting campus facilities for private events, she said.

SSU police are sworn California peace officers, not security guards, Kashack said.

There are about 800 school staff and only a smattering of students on campus now. Faculty return on Thursday for the fall semester, followed by about 8,500 students on Monday.