Man charged with murder in weekend stabbing in front of pub
SAN JOSE >> A car wash worker has been charged with the unprovoked fatal stabbing of a man at a South San Jose strip mall near his workplace early Sunday, according to authorities and court records.
Prosecutors filed a murder charge Tuesday against 55-year-old San Jose resident Howard Hisashi Ishihara in the death of 24-year-old Damon Kosiba. A scheduled arraignment Wednesday was delayed; he was being held without bail at the Santa Clara County Main Jail.
San Jose police officers were called at 7:18 a.m. Sunday to the 5000 block of Almaden Expressway, in front of the Britannia Arms pub, for a report of a stabbing. They arrived to find Kosiba gravely wounded. He died at the scene.
According to an investigative summary accompanying the criminal complaint against Ishihara, detectives reviewed video surveillance from the pub that showed Kosiba sitting at an outdoor table in front of the pub, which was closed when the attack unfolded at 6:22 a.m.
“The suspect stabbed the victim once in the chest with what appeared to be a knife,” Detective Gabriel Cuenca wrote in the investigative statement. “The attack appeared unprovoked as the victim was seated and facing away from the suspect prior to the stabbing.”
It would be about an hour before someone called 911 to report Kosiba’s injuries.
Detectives also reviewed surveillance footage from Classic Car Wash, located immediately north of the stabbing site. That video showed that moments before the stabbing, a man resembling the attacker exited a white van in a parking area near the car wash, then walked south toward the pub and out of frame. A short time later, the same man is seen getting back into the van and driving away.
A car wash employee identified the man as Ishihara, and confirmed that he was an employee at the car wash and that the van belonged to him, Cuenca wrote. Later that day, police arrested Ishihara.
A precise motive has not been announced by investigators, nor was it clear whether Ishihara and Kosiba knew each other. A message left for the car wash company’s general manager had not been returned as of late Wednesday afternoon.
The stabbing marked the city’s 32nd homicide of the year. That total includes 23 cases investigated by San Jose police, plus the nine victims of the May 26 VTA railyard mass shooting being investigated by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.
Anyone with information about Sunday’s killing can contact Detective Sgt. J.J. Vallejo or Detective Gabriel Cuenca at 408-277-5283 or leave a tip with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408947-7867 or at svcrimestoppers.org.