ESCONDIDOESCONDIDO — Escondido police are investigating after a teenager was fatally stabbed after two groups clashed in a residential street Monday night.
Someone called police shortly before 8 p.m. to report that a person was down on Wanek Road, off Valley Parkway, in the northeast end of the city, police Lt. Janice Kuehn said.
Officers arrived and located a boy suffering from a stab wound. Paramedics transported him to Palomar Hospital, where he died.
Officers said the stabbing occurred as two groups clashed in the middle of Wanek Road after some kind of confrontation, said police Lt. Ryan Hicks. The victim collapsed on the street as he was running away.
By time officers arrived, others involved in the fight had left.
“We don’t have anybody in custody and we are early in the process of trying to identify everyone involved,” said police Lt. Ryan Hicks. He said detectives are trying to determine if the incident was gang related.
This is the second fatal street fight in Escondido in less than six weeks.
On April 27, police responded to a fight between two groups on North Ivy Street near East Lincoln Avenue, near Lincoln Elementary School. In that incident, officers found two victims suffering from stab wounds.
One victim, a 37-year-old man identified as Jose Ramirez, suffered fatal injuries in the fight. A 30-year-old man was taken to the hospital with stab wounds and survived.
Hicks said investigators believe others involved in the April fight were juveniles.
“That one we can say was gang-related,” Hicks said.
Anyone with any information regarding the incident is encouraged to call Escondido police at (760) 839-4722 or Detective Therese Ruiz at (760) 839-4790.
