Cousins charged with stabbing of Berkeley High student
The attack may have been a case of mistaken identity related to a feud between Hispanic gangs at Berkeley High, police wrote.
Two teenage cousins from Emeryville have been charged with the unprovoked stabbing of a Berkeley High student as he walked home from the gym last month, court papers show.
The suspects — identified as 19-year-old Erick Galicia-Gomez and Stiven Luna-Luna, 18 — have been charged with felony battery causing serious bodily injury, court records show.
On April 9, the 15-year-old BHS student was walking home from a gym on San Pablo Avenue when two people in masks approached him and began to stab him shortly after 9 p.m., Berkeley police wrote in court papers.
The incident took place at Haskell and Mabel streets near the Haskell-Mabel Mini Park in southwest Berkeley.
"The suspects did not say anything … during the entirety of the assault," police wrote.
The attack was unprovoked and the suspects did not take anything from the victim, police said.
According to court papers, the stabbing — which may have been a case of mistaken identity — stemmed from an ongoing feud involving Hispanic gangs at Berkeley High School.
After the stabbing, the assailants went south on Mabel Street, at least one of them on an electric scooter, according to BPD.
Last week, BPD arrested Galicia-Gomez and Luna-Luna at the Berkeley Police Department, authorities said.
One is a Berkeley High student and the other attends Emery High.
The victim, who sustained multiple stab wounds and underwent emergency surgery, has since been discharged from the hospital to recover.
As of this week, both suspects remain in custody at Santa Rita Jail with bails of $125,000, according to booking records.
They are scheduled for a pretrial hearing June 9.
Neither teenager has prior criminal cases listed in Alameda County Superior Court, according to court records.
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Emilie Raguso
