In what appears to be an assault by members of the Norte
ño gang, two Fremont men were injured Tuesday while playing
soccer with some youths at a park at San Pedro Avenue.
In what appears to be an assault by members of the Norteño gang, two Fremont men were injured Tuesday while playing soccer with some youths at a park at San Pedro Avenue.
Morgan Hill Police Cmdr. Joe Sampson said Thursday that three Hispanic male adults were in the park with some juveniles at approximately 5:50pm when a white pickup pulled up, and a bunch of males, allegedly dressed in red armed with bats and what may have been metal poles, jumped out and began yelling at the group.
“They estimated there may have been 10 or so of them, but it all happened so quickly, they said, that it was difficult to get good descriptions,” Sampson said.
The alleged gang members yelled for the others to leave, saying, “This is Norteño territory,” before striking the adults with their weapons, according to Sampson.
Two of the men were injured: Alberto Villanueva, 18, of Fremont, who had a laceration on the right side of the forehead, near his temple; and Javier Garcia, 19, of Fremont, who received a laceration on the back of the head.
When officers responded to the call, the suspects had fled, Sampson said. Paramedics were called, and Villanueva and Garcia were treated at the scene. Paramedics cleared the two men to drive themselves to the hospital.
“The group was apparently just playing soccer, speaking Spanish, when the others drove up,” Sampson said. “It appears that nothing was done to provoke the incident. It doesn’t look as if there was more to it than this, but who knows.”
The members of the group playing soccer were not dressed in blue, the color typically associated with the Sureños, the rival gang of the Norteños, Sampson said, but wearing jeans and t-shirts.
Sampson said he doesn’t think this is a reoccurrence of a recent flare up of activity by the gangs, which culminated in the shooting death of an alleged Sureño member Sept. 30.
“It’s hard to say from just a single incident,” he said. “It’s too early to say this is a trend. It is one isolated incident at this point. Of course, we are keeping our eyes out. We had the ACT team from Gilroy come in, and they helped us do some suppression things, hitting the local hot spots and things like that. Things had calmed down.”
There is no need for residents to worry, Sampson said, but if suspicious activity is observed, it should be reported to the police.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 Ext. 202 or at md****@*************es.com.
