Santa Barbara – Just after midnight on February 3rd, a downtown Santa Barbara intersection was the scene of violence between what appear to be warring factions of local area gangs.
As the fight erupted between numerous individuals, 911 Emergency calls reporting the combat flooded into the Santa Barbara Police Department Dispatch Center. According to SBPD Public Information Officer Sgt. Riley Harwood, “one caller advised that the incident involved an assault with a knife,” while other callers gave specific descriptions of those embroiled in the conflict.
Responding officers identified a 31 year-old victim suffering from non-life threatening stab wounds to the back. As he was being treated by paramedics on the scene, officers conducted multiple field interviews, with witnesses reporting the direction that two of the assailants had taken in fleeing from the area. Not long afterward, just blocks away from the altercation, patrol units contacted Javier Hernandez III, a resident of Oxnard, and Juan Jose Vasquez, who was identified as residing in Goleta. Both are 18 years of age.
Juan Jose Vasquez
Ensuing investigation indicated, according to Harwood, that the victim and a companion were at a nearby State Street shopping mall “when they were confronted by a group” that included Hernandez and Vasquez. Witnesses reported hearing a verbal confrontation and seeing gang signs flashed, with the victim and his companion being followed some distance before the fight broke out. “Investigation indicated that Hernandez and Vasquez were involved in the stabbing,” Harwood reported.
Both suspects were arrested on the scene and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, with bail amounts of $30,000 each.
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