The Willow Glen Resident

Boy injured on Willow in alleged gang attack

By Cecily Barnes

A 15-year-old boy was assaulted with a metal pole on Willow Street last Sunday night, in what the San Jose Police Department believes to have been a gang-related incident. Shortly after 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 7, four male suspects approached the victim and his three male friends at the corner of Willow Street and Delmas Avenue. They beat the victim to the ground with metal sticks and hammers and continued the assault after the boy had fallen, said John Carrillo, public information officer for the San Jose Police Department.

"Once on the ground, the suspects continued to beat him approximately 10 to 15 more times on his upper body and head area with the stick," Carrillo said. "They then fled on foot and may have been picked up by a white Bronco or Blazer with a red stripe down the middle."

The victim's three companions fled the scene, too, leaving their friend bleeding on Willow Street.

Alerted by the noise, Delmas Avenue resident Eddie Martinez phoned the police and paramedics. Martinez told police he thought someone had been stabbed. Safety crews arrived and transported the victim to Valley Medical Center, where he was treated for a depressed fracture to the skull and bruising to the upper body. The authorities also notified the victim's parents.

The identities of the suspects are unknown, and they are still at large. The victim described the suspects as four Hispanic males between 18 and 20 years old. He said they were each wearing dark blue shirts and black pants the night of the attack.

Dick DeLaRosa, gang policy manager for Mayor Susan Hammer's Gang Task Force, said there are many reasons for these types of gang-related incidents.

"It may have been a payback from months before," he said. "Anytime you get young people together who are in gangs, there might be violence."

The city of San Jose has pumped $10 million since 1991 into its Gang Task Force, according to De La Rosa, who said incidents like these are on the decline as a result.

"Last year juvenile crime was reduced by 8 percent, and the Gang Task Force had a lot to do with it," DeLaRosa said.

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