Photo: Pickleweed Park
SAN RAFAEL— Law enforcement recently tracked down three gang members and arrested them. Their arrests stem from a fight between rival gangs and an attempted stabbing last month.
The three suspects drove to Pickleweed Park in the city’s Canal district on May 26. Then they confronted a small group of rival gang members who were already there.
The arriving newcomers called out their gang affiliation and violence erupted. During the fighting one suspect attempted to stab a rival and another suspect lobbed a beer bottle.
Witnesses called police and provided a description of the vehicle that the suspects used to flee from the park. Responding officers located the vehicle carrying three suspects a short distance away and stopped it.
Members of the rival gang also left the park and therefore did not identify the suspects.
Detectives and officers from the city’s street crimes unit later located and interviewed the victims. They also gathered more witness statements on June 11.
Witnesses told police they saw all three men entering the park holding knives in their hands. A rival gang member told police that one of the suspects tried to stab him. Another told police that he ran away after one of suspects threw a bottle at him.
One June 13 and June 14 police successively located and arrested San Rafael residents 36-year-old Edward Carroll and 23-year-old Ricardo Luis Alvarez. They busted the third suspect, Richmond resident 21-year-old Erick Christopher Ajanel Ireta, on June 14.
All three suspects face charges for assault with a deadly weapon likely to cause great bodily injury. The other charge is for participating in street terrorism.
