A 22-year-old Simi Valley man was hospitalized with stab wounds last Thursday after getting in the middle of a domestic dispute at Rancho Simi Community Park.

Albert Ramirez was in the park around 6:30 p.m. when, according to police, he observed Jeffrey Curiel, 23, and a woman having a fight near the picnic tables next to the tennis courts. Simi Police Lt. Blair Summey said Curiel and the woman are in a dating relationship and Ramirez knew the female involved.

"Albert said they were having an argument and (Curiel) was kind of being rough with her," Summey said. "I think he was concerned for her safety, that the dispute was turning from a verbal thing to a potentially physical thing, so he intervened."

When Ramirez attempted to intervene on behalf of the woman, he said that Curiel attacked him with a knife. Ramirez received a 2-centimeter-long laceration above the left ear, Summey said.

Ramirez was transported by ambulance to Simi Valley Hospital, where he was treated for the knife cut and released.

After the assault, Curiel and the woman went back to their car and the woman dropped Curiel off at Royal Avenue and First Street. She then came back to the park and provided police, who had arrived on scene, with information as to Curiel's whereabouts, Summey said. Other witnesses at the park also positively identified Curiel as the person who had inflicted injury on Ramirez.

Curiel was arrested a short distance from the scene on charges of assault with a deadly weapon. Police recovered the knife suspected of being used in the assault.

Summey called Ramirez a "good Samaritan" for putting himself at risk to come to the woman's aid, though he said the best thing to do in most cases is call the police and be a good witness.

"For a police officer, it's our duty to rush in. Citizens aren't compelled to do that. They don't have to interject themselves into a potentially violent situation," he said. "You can never tell what someone might do . . . but sometimes a desperate situation calls on people to do heroic things."