Man chased from fair, stabbed

<p>A 27-year-old man was stabbed in the neck Thursday evening shortly after he was confronted by a group of about 10 people at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds who asked him what gang he belonged to, the man’s wife said.</p><p>The wounded man, who works as a caregiver at a Santa Rosa facility for the elderly, tried escape and fend off his attackers in a moving confrontation that went north two blocks from the fairgrounds to the corner of Lee Street and Ashbury Avenue, just off Brookwood Avenue.</p><p>“He was trying to fight them off because there were 10 of them,” said his wife, who asked that her name not be used for fear of retaliation.</p><p>“The police are trying to figure out what’s going on,” fair manager Tawny Tesconi said Thursday night. She said she had received “no confirmation” from police that the altercation that led to the stabbing started inside the fairgrounds.</p><p>The fight started at about 7:25 p.m., said the man’s sister-in-law, who received a frantic phone call about that time from her sister. The sister-in-law said the stabbing took place about 30 minutes later.</p><p>At the stabbing scene Santa Rosa police officers interviewed witnesses and neighborhood residents. One longtime resident, pointing across the street to an area in front of a brown house on Lee Street, said she saw the man “under that tree or kind of on that lawn.”</p><p>The resident the “man looked like he was injured and they were wrapping stuff around his head.” She said she saw the wounded man’s wife coming around the corner, pushing a baby stroller, calling out, “That’s my husband.”</p><p>The wife said she didn’t know why her husband’s attackers would take him for a gang member. “He doesn’t even have any tattoos. He was wearing a black ‘T’ and black sweater and dark denim pants,” she said.</p><p>As firefighters scrubbed down a portion of the street in front of the brown house, the neighbor said she was not surprised by the attack.</p><p>“Stuff like this happens every year at the fair,” she said. “This year, it hasn’t been as bad as previous years. Maybe because attendance is down.”</p><p>Police officials could not be reached Thursday and no details about the incident were available.</p><p>Staff Writer Martin Espinoza can be contacted at 521-5213 and martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.</p>