Simi Valley man, 48, attacked and stabbed without provocation
'Wrong place, wrong time,' victim states
By Kyle Jorrey kjorrey@theacorn.com

A 48-year-old Simi Valley man was released from the hospital Wednesday after spending five days recovering from a knife attack he suffered Friday night while riding his bicycle just a few minutes from home.

The victim, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Simi Valley Acorn he was returning home on Patricia Avenue around 8 p.m. on Jan. 11 when suddenly he came upon a group of five or six men dressed in dark clothing and hooded sweatshirts.

Speeding up his pace to get by the menacing group, the victim said he was almost out of harm's way when the last man took a swing at him.

"I ducked him and then I wiped out in the gravel," the victim said. "At that point they all just sort of jumped on me and started kicking and punching me. They asked me, 'Where's the money? Where's the money?' And I told them I didn't have any."

At that point, he said, neighbors in an apartment building across the street took notice of the beating and ran to his aid, eventually chasing off the attackers.

"If not for them, it could have been much worse," the resident said.

As it turned out, the attack was more serious than the victim, a local glass worker, first thought.

"I never saw a knife. I didn't see that I was being stabbed," he said. "But as I was gathering myself up I felt the pain and felt this warm, wet feeling in my stomach. That's when I lifted my shirt and saw all the blood."

The victim, who was stabbed twice in the chest and three times in the arm, was rushed to Simi Valley Hospital's Intensive Care Unit to be treated for several injuries, the most serious being a collapsed lung that was caused when his chest was punctured by the knife.

He was eventually stabilized after doctors used a tube to reinflate his lung.

The victim said that, in the end, the group never stole any of his possessions.

"I guess they were just looking to beat somebody up," he said.

According to a Simi Valley police report, the victim described his attackers as male, Hispanic, late teens to early 20s.

Detectives are attempting to determine if the assault was gang related.

Anyone with further information is asked to call Detective David Del Marto at (805) 5836218.

The victim, who said he rides his bike to work every day, has lived in Simi Valley since 1973. He said this is the first time he's ever faced an incident of this nature.

"We moved here from Carson to get out of Los Angeles and away from this type of gang stuff. Now it's happened here," he said. "It's unbelievable for this to happen in my neighborhood."

The victim said he agreed to speak about the crime in hopes of alerting others that this type of attack could happen to them.

"People need to be aware that this type of stuff is happening. I never thought that it could until that night. I was just in the wrong place, wrong time." - Acorn reporter Darleen Principe contributed to this story