Santa Paula Youth Stabbed, Is Critical
SANTA PAULA — A 15-year-old Santa Paula boy was in critical condition Thursday evening after allegedly being stabbed by another youth who police arrested on suspicion of attempted murder as he tried to flee on a bicycle.
“He got stab wounds to his back and chest, and he was in very, very critical condition upon the arrival of the paramedics,†said Rob Snyder, field operations supervisor with MedTrans Ambulance.
The unidentified juvenile was found by paramedics on the sidewalk in front of an apartment building at 350 W. Harvard Blvd. and was taken to Santa Paula Memorial Hospital.
The suspected assailant in the 3:15 p.m. attack was arrested while officers were conducting interviews in the area.
Snyder said that about 30 minutes after the initial stabbing, paramedics responded to the victim of a second assault about a block and a half away on Steckel Drive. That 17-year-old Santa Paula youth had been hit on the head with an aluminum-type pipe as he was riding his bicycle.
He was taken to the hospital with serious head injuries.
Police told paramedics that the possible gang-related assault may have been a retaliatory attack for the first incident.
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