Stabbing victim in stable condition

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

A 17-year-old who was repeatedly stabbed on Santa Barbara’s Westside at 10:20 p.m. Thursday night is in stable condition in the Intensive Care Ward at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
Santa Barbara Police say they do not yet have any suspects, but said the victim described being attacked by numerous people armed with knives.

“The preliminary investigation is that the victim was on foot in his neighborhood when he was attacked,” said Lt. Paul McCaffrey, a spokesman for the police department. “The victim was able to walk home on his own power before collapsing.”
As first reported in the Daily Sound yesterday, police discovered the wounded teen at his home in the 800 block of Orange Ave. McCaffrey said investigators then followed a two-block long blood trail to the assault location in the 700 block of Wentworth Ave.
McCaffrey said no weapons have been discovered and police worked through the night looking for any clues.
“Detectives are not certain of the exact motive or circumstances leading up to the attack, but have not ruled out that it was gang related,” McCaffrey said.
The stabbing comes on the heels of several violent crimes on Santa Barbara’s West Side, most of which have been coined as gang related.
The most recent occurred on July 16 in the 700 block of San Pascual St., where 16-year-old Lorenzo Valentin Carachure was stabbed to death.
Police have not yet arrested anyone in connection with Carachure’s death despite having at least two eyewitnesses, both of whom were with Carachure and were also stabbed during the fight.
Another young Santa Barbara boy met his death at the end of a knife on March 14, after being stabbed eight times during broad daylight at the intersection of State and Carrillo Streets.
That boy was 15-year-old Luis Angel Linares.
Police arrested several possible suspects in connection with Linares’s death, but charged 14-year-old Ricardo “Ricky” Juarez with murdering Linares. Juarez is awaiting trial. The District Attorney has opted to try Juarez as an adult.
McCaffrey said increased bicycle patrols have been implemented on both the east and west sides of town in an effort to quell the spike in violence.
But McCaffrey says increased police presence won’t solve all the problems.
“The one thing that an extra police presence doesn’t do, it doesn’t change the gang mentality,” McCaffrey said.
“There’s been some problems,” McCaffrey admitted, but “We have people with the potential of being violent every day of the week. Every day we don’t have violence is a good day.”
McCaffrey said anyone with information about Thursday night’s stabbing should contact Detective Mike Brown at 897-2355.