SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A fifth suspect was behind bars Friday in connection with a spate of random baseball-bat attacks that left several people wounded two months ago alongside Oceanside Harbor.
San Diego resident Steven Isacar Paz, 20, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of taking part in the suspected gang-related assaults along North Harbor Drive, according to the Oceanside Police Department.
Paz and four cohorts allegedly attacked two people in the 1400 block of North Harbor Drive shortly before 9 p.m. Aug. 17, then fled the area in a vehicle. The victims were hospitalized for treatment of head trauma.
Witnesses reported that the masked assailants appeared to be indiscriminately attacking people who happened by, police said. The perpetrators also confronted a bystander and made a failed attempt to steal her cellphone, which she had been using to record video of the violence, according to OPD officials.
A short time after receiving the initial assault report, police got information about two people who were being treated for similar injuries at Tri- City Medical Center. Though apparently not associated with the other victims, they had been assaulted in the same area and manner, evidently by the same attackers, police said.
The victims of the assaults suffered injuries of varying degrees of severity, including head lacerations, and one was left with a facial fracture, according to an OPD statement.
On Sept. 3, detectives investigating the assaults arrested 21-year-old Pablo Francisco Gonzalez of Oceanside and 20-year-old Jorge Luis Perez of Vista.
The other two alleged perpetrators in the attacks, 28-year-old Franco Jose Barahona of Lakeside and Sergio C. Resendiz of Yucca Valley, were taken into custody on Sept 15 and Oct. 3, respectively, according to police.
The suspects were booked into county jail on an array of charges, including attempted murder, assault, conspiracy, taking part in gang crimes and probation violations.
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