Police say stabbing is gang related

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

An 18-year-old Santa Barbara man was stabbed several times Sunday night in the courtyard garden outside the Guest House Inn at 3344 State St. Santa Barbara police said the stabbing was gang-related and the victim, whose identify was not released, was recovering in Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital yesterday.
Surveillance video captured by hotel cameras showed the victim running down an alley with several people in a black Nissan Altima in chase.

The victim and the car go out of view for a moment, but reappear as the victim runs through the courtyard searching for a place to hide with three men close behind. When the suspects catch the victim, they throw him into a flowerbed next to a small wall. The assault lasts less than a minute. As one suspect stabs the victim, the other two punch and kick him.
An employee at the hotel, who asked to remain anonymous, said the victim came into the hotel lobby with a gash on his face that stretched from the forehead to the upper lip, which was split in two. The employee said the victim also had a deep stab wound on his arm that sprayed blood on the floors and walls of the lobby. The employee said the victim was bleeding so profusely, he attempted to tie a tourniquet around the man’s arm.
Sgt. Lorenzo Duarte, a Santa Barbara police spokesman, said the victim was vague in his description of the suspects.
The assault occurred just after 8 p.m. Duarte said no arrests have been made.