Gilroy police arrested two suspected gang members at gunpoint
Monday evening after one of them allegedly stabbed a 15-year-old
boy and punched his 11-year-old sister when she tried to help.
Gilroy police arrested two suspected gang members at gunpoint Monday evening after one of them allegedly stabbed a 15-year-old boy and punched his 11-year-old sister when she tried to help.
About 5:15 p.m. Monday, one of the two suspected gang members walked up to the teen while he was changing the oil of a car sitting in his family’s driveway along the 7300 block of Maple Street. The 11-year-old girl was helping her brother outside, police said, when the man asked the teen if he “banged” – meaning if he belonged to a gang – but the teen said he did not. Even though the teen wore a red shirt – a color often worn by Norteño gang members – police had no reason to believe the teen was a part of any gang, Sgt. Jim Gillio said.
The man – who wore blue flannel clothing, which police said indicates he is a Sureño gang member – yelled gang slogans and then he pulled out a steak knife-like blade and stabbed the teen once in the torso, police said. However, the teen fought off the man and only sustained a superficial wound that did not require medical treatment, police said.
Witnessing her brother’s attack, the sister yelled for her mother, police said. When the struggle spilled out onto the street, the girl ran up to the attacker and tried to stop him, but the man punched her in the ribs once, police said. He then fled southbound on Maple Street. The child did not have any injuries and did not require medical treatment, police said.
Less than four minutes after officers first responded to the fight, additional officers on their way into the neighborhood stopped two men at gunpoint less than a block away from the victim’s home because they each matched the suspect’s description as reported by police: about 21 years old, between 5-foot, 6-inches and 5-foot, 8-inches tall, with a medium build. Witnesses said the man had a shaved head and a goatee, and wore tan pants and black and white tennis sneakers.
“Based on the description put out by officers, other officers in the area stopped two guys matching that description,” Gillio said.
Those two guys were Eduardo Ortiz, 18, and Jose Luis Rodriguez, 22. Police stopped both at the corner of Maple and Seventh streets and arrested Ortiz for possession of a switchblade knife and Rodriguez for possession of a concealed fixed-blade knife, a felony. Gillio would not say whether there was blood on the knives or which of the arrested men police believed to be the sole attacker. Gillio stressed that the victims only reported one assailant.
Neither Ortiz nor Rodriguez were charged in connection with the stabbing – only with illegal possession of a knife, and the Santa Clara County District Attorney had not pressed charges as of 11 a.m. Monday, according to a spokesperson. Booking photos for Ortiz and Rodriguez were also not immediately available.
Anyone with information about the case can call police at 846-0350 or leave an anonymous tip at 846-0330.
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