Santa Barbara Police Department detectives are investigating a stabbing that occurred downtown late Monday night and left one victim with multiple wounds.
Officers received a call reporting the victim, a 33-year-old Santa Barbara man, had just arrived at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital shortly after midnight on Tuesday, said Sgt. Riley Harwood.
The man was suffering from multiple stab wounds, which are serious, but he was expected to survive, Harwood said.
The victim has a local gang affiliation, Harwood said, and the stabbing is believe to be gang-related.
What happened to lead up to the stabbing is still unknown, but officers located the crime scene on the 400 block of W. Ortega Street, and said that an acquaintance of the victim spotted him while driving down Castillo after the stabbing.
The acquaintance drove the victim to the hospital, Harwood said.
Coincidentally, the victim of the stabbing had been arrested and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail three days earlier on June 8 for peeping while prowling, use of a controlled substance, and resisting or delaying an officer, Harwood said.
Police received a call at 10 a.m. on that occasion that two subjects, a male and a female, were prowling on the first block of East Islay Street.
“The subjects were observed trespassing on private property, checking doors and windows, and looking over fences into surrounding properties,” Harwood said.
When the first officers arrived, the male suspect — the stabbing victim — was seen running away, and was eventually caught in a residence on Anacapa Street.
He was arrested, and “ it was discovered that he had used heroin earlier in the day,” Harwood said.
The female suspect was not found.
“At this time, there is no indication that the circumstances surrounding the aforementioned stabbing and the victim’s earlier arrest are related,” Harwood said.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.