2 more men charged in double stabbing
STAMFORD — Two more Stamford men have been charged in connection with a double stabbing on the city’s West Side where police claim seven assailants attacked two men with ”makeshift” spears, leaving one of them with a life-threatening injury.
Jostin Hernandez-Lopez, 19, and Angel Soto Alaniz, 29, were arrested Monday on charges of first-degree assault, conspiracy to commit firstdegree assault, first-degree reckless endangerment, conspiracy to commit first-degree reckless endangerment, second-degree threatening and conspiracy to commit second-degree threatening in connection with the seven-ontwo attack.
The two Stamford residents were arraigned at the state Superior Court in Stamford where a judge raised their bonds from $200,000 to $250,000, citing the serious nature of the allegations.
“The allegations are such that one of the victims had to have a lifesaving procedure,” Judge Kevin Randolph said on Tuesday.
“This could have been a murder. A $200,000 bond is charitable,” he added, before raising the two mens’ bonds.
As of Tuesday, four individuals have been arrested by Stamford police in connection with what Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Valdes called a “gang retaliation incident.”
Last week, 27-year-old Jose “Casper” GarridoMorales, 27, was arrested in connection with the alleged assault. Marvin Lemus-Padilla, the first person arrested in the case, was charged by Stamford police on Jan. 28.
Stamford police said the arrests stem from a double stabbing reported on Rose Park Avenue around 3:40 p.m. Nov. 5.
At the scene, police found a 20-year-old man who had been stabbed in the chest and a 30-yearold man who had been stabbed in his left shoulder and lower back, according to the warrant. The 20-year-old had wounds severe enough to require immediate surgery and was admitted to the hospital intensive care unit for a “multi-day hospital stay,” the warrant reads.
Surveillance footage from a nearby home captured someone “yelping loudly,” and the two men emerging from a walkway between two homes, according to the warrant. As the 20-year-old crossed the threshold of a wooden gate, the footage showed him “immediately engaged in fight by an assailant dressed in white pants,” the warrant states. The assault left the younger man lying face-down in the street motionless, with friends rushing back and forth “trying to fend off the attackers,” the warrant states.
Footage from a nearby garage captured seven people getting out of a white work van on Rose Park Avenue, the warrant states, two of them each brandishing what was described as a “makeshift spear,” according to the warrant. One was armed with a knife, while two others held a black belt and a length of chain, the warrant states.
Other witnesses provided police with cellphone video that showed the group returning to the van after the assault and speeding off, it said.
Police were able to trace the van to its owner using license plate reader data, according to the warrant. The woman who owned the vehicle told investigators she’d agreed to lend it out to a man she identified as Garrido-Morales, who was friends with her brother and boyfriend. Police found the vehicle at the Garrido-Morales’ home; a search of the van didn’t turn up any evidence, though, according to the warrant.
One witness who identified Garrido-Morales and two others as being involved in the assault allegedly told police he “knows these three to regularly antagonize and fight random people,” the warrant said.
Another witness told police one of the attackers claimed the 20-yearold victim had “messed with the Mara 18,” apparently referring to a street gang, the warrant said.
The 30-year-old man, a Bridgeport resident, told police he’d gone to hang out with the younger man that day. Later in the afternoon, the 20year-old received a call he put on speaker phone. The older man told police the callers, some of whom he recognized by their voice, were insulting the younger man saying they were “going to beat the (expletive) out of him,” the warrant stated.
The younger man told the callers he “wasn’t afraid of them,” the 30year-old told police, and that they could come over to his house whenever. About 10 minutes after the call, the group called again and said they were outside, the warrant stated.
The 20-year-old man, followed by friends, went outside to meet them, but the friends went back in the house when they saw the group armed with “knives chains pipes,” the older man told police, according to the warrant. He told investigators the younger man was separated from the group and left outside.
“I went out quickly to help him and the bad guys were right next to the door waiting for us to come out,” the older man told police, according to the warrant.
Hernandez-Lopez is next scheduled to appear in court on June 5, while Soto-Alaniz is scheduled for June 3.
Stamford police said the arrests stem from a double stabbing reported on Rose Park Avenue around 3:40 p.m. Nov. 5.