Man stabbed in suspected gang attack at Santa Rosa park

A teen was stabbed and his friend punched Wednesday evening by a group of at least three people at a southwest Santa Rosa park in an attack police suspect was motivated by gang rivalry.

Officers found the injured victims at 5:46 p.m. in the 800 block of Sebastopol Road, where they were being treated by medical personnel, the Santa Rosa Police Department said Thursday morning.

Investigators later learned the two men had been confronted by a group that began yelling “gang challenges” at them as they drove into the Southwest Community Park, the department said. Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Kyle Philp declined to specify what exactly the suspects said, citing the investigation, but added that police believe the attack was motivated by rivalry between the norteño and the sureño street gangs.

The suspects punched the driver of the car repeatedly in the face, Philp said. The second victim, for reasons still unclear, got out of the car but was then attacked by at least two people. He had four to seven stab wounds, the majority in his torso and one in his leg, Philp said. After he was stabbed, the 18-year-old victim got back in the car and his friend drove them away.

The suspects left on foot after the attack, police said. The group was described as between the ages of 17 and 22 and wearing black sweatshirts and beanies.

The suspect who was stabbed was taken to a local hospital for serious injuries but is expected to survive, police said. The other victim suffered some swelling in his face because of the attack but didn’t need to be transported to a hospital, Philp said.

The two victims have ties to local criminal street gangs, as police have encountered them with other gang members in the past, Philp said. It’s not clear at this point in the investigation if the victims and suspects knew each other, though the victims claimed they didn’t know the men who attacked them.

“Based on witness statements, this group, as soon as they saw the car pull in, began charging toward the car immediately,” Philp said. “Clearly, there was some type of recognition. But we just don’t know what that was.”

Philp declined to reveal which individuals involved in the confrontation belong to which gang, citing rising tensions between norteños and sureños in the area of the Southwest Community Park recently.

“At this point, to avoid further violence between the two of them, which we do think could happen as a retaliation for this, I don’t want to say who belonged to which group,” Philp said. “We’re trying to not have more violence.”

Authorities ask witnesses or anyone with information about the incident to call the department’s Violent Crimes Investigations team at 707-543-3590. The Sonoma County Alliance’s “Take Back Our Community Program” is offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest of the suspect or suspects involved in the stabbing.