SAN JOSE — A 15-year-old boy fatally stabbed at Santana Row on Valentine’s Day was initially confronted by a group of gang-affiliated teens over his red clothing, and the same group is suspected in a separate assault at nearby Westfield Valley Fair mall less than an hour earlier, according to recently filed court documents.
Police allege that the five male suspects in the group assault of David Gutierrez — an 18-year-old and four minors, including a 13-year-old accused of the fatal stabbing — were members of a local Sureño gang faction who were wearing red, the colors of their Norteño rivals, as a disguise to ambush and draw police attention to their opposition.
David was not involved with gangs, according to police, who have described the attack as a chance encounter at the posh San Jose shopping district.
San Jose Police Chief Paul Joseph called David’s killing “senseless” at a Monday news conference, and drew attention to how young teens are increasingly deployed by gangs to commit violent acts because of the lesser criminal consequences they face as minors.
Case records for the the 13-year-old and three 16-year-olds are held in juvenile court and thus are mostly shielded from public view. But charges against 18-year-old Campbell resident Emanuel Sanchez-Damian have allowed public access to a police affidavit and criminal complaint that offers more insight into how the deadly clash unfolded.
The affidavit authored by Detective Amanda Estantino and Detective Sgt. John Van Den Broeck reaffirms previously released accounts that David and his girlfriend were at Santana Row for a surprise dinner date the boy had planned for them. At one point around 7:10 p.m., they were separated, and the girlfriend, according to her account given to police, saw two members of the suspect group approach David asking why “he was wearing red so much.”
The boy was wearing red shoes and a red jacket, according to the documents.
Without provocation, the group, now consisting of five red-clad members, started to punch David and one of the 16-year-olds lifted David and performed a “suplex” move to throw him on the ground. A security guard for a nearby restaurant, seeing that the fight was knocking into tables and chairs, intervened and broke it up.
Four members of the attacking group ran away, the detectives wrote in the affidavit, citing surveillance video. In the scramble and separation, David and his girlfriend reportedly ran into the 13-year-old boy, and David challenged him to a one-on-one fight. But the boy apparently refused, telling David that he already “got his hits in,” according to the girlfriend’s police statement.
The tension escalated and, according to the detectives’ recounting of the surveillance video, the boy “takes a knife from his person and stabs (David) approximately 3 times.” David died that evening at Valley Medical Center.
A large portion of the police affidavit details how detectives identified the teen suspects by drawing on surveillance video and cross-referencing previous police investigations and encounters with them, and documents the Sureño gang affiliations of the suspects, including the 13-year-old boy.
The affidavit also brings to light that three days after the fatal stabbing, a store employee at Westfield Valley Fair mall contacted police to report an assault in the mall that took place about 40 minutes before the Santana Row attack. In that incident, surveillance video reportedly shows the same group of teens committing a group assault on a male victim, who then walked into a nearby store seeking first aid.
Detectives wrote that the victim was walking in the mall with his girlfriend when someone in the group said unidentified words to the victim, followed by another member of the group punching him.
“All five suspects began to assault, kick, stomp, knee, and strike the victim while he is on the ground. During this time, one of the male suspects (attempted) to remove the victim’s shoes,” the affidavit reads. “One suspect was able to remove one shoe from the victim’s foot. The suspects then run out of the store and out of the mall with the victim’s one shoe.”
That attack is the basis of robbery and assault charges filed against Sanchez-Damian, on top of an assault charge related to the attack on David. Sanchez-Damian was also charged with gang crimes. He was arraigned Tuesday and his next court hearing is scheduled for May 15.