A 22-year-old student was stabbed to death and three other students were wounded during a street fight early yesterday on the San Diego State University campus.
The Medical Examiner's Office identified the man who was killed as Luis Felipe Watson Dos Santos, a Mesa College student from Concord.
San Diego police homicide Lt. Kevin Rooney said the four victims, all men, had just left a party shortly after 2 a.m. and were walking on 55th Street near Peterson Gym Drive when they began arguing with a second group of four men.
The altercation turned into a fight in the middle of 55th Street, and the four victims were stabbed by a member of the other group, Rooney said. No arrests were reported as of late last night.
Santos died at the scene, and the other victims, ages 20 to 24, were taken to hospitals with wounds not believed to be life-threatening, Rooney said. Their conditions were unavailable.
San Diego Community College spokesman Rich Dittbenner said Santos and two of the other victims were Mesa College students. The fourth victim attends SDSU, Dittbenner said.
San Diego State University spokesman Jack Beresford said he did yet know whether the party that the victims attended was at a university residence hall, sorority, fraternity or private residence. SDSU's Fraternity Row is just south of where the fight occurred.
Details of the incident began circulating yesterday among students.
Sophomore Dave Brager, who lives on Hardy Avenue, said his housemates encountered the crime scene on their way home from evening activities.
“They said there were cops everywhere, and they said somebody got stabbed, but then today I heard that one was dead,” Brager said. “I heard it was a murder. It's scary because it's right in my backyard. It's where I walk every day. I think of campus as a safe area. There's not too many thugs around.”
Grant Garske, a student government vice president, said the stabbings were “terrible and tragic.”
“I don't like it when any student gets hurt. I don't like it when any student fights,” Garske said.
Usually students fight over trivial matters, he said, and regret it the next day.
“In this case, I'm sure every one of those students regrets what they did,” Garske said. “Life is clearly more important than a fight.”
Russell Hunter, student president of the Interfraternity Council, said many parties are held in the area.
Campus police have found no fraternity connection to the fight, said Gina Speciale, an SDSU spokeswoman.
Beresford said the university issued a crime alert that was distributed around the campus and posted on the college Web site.
The assault was being described as an isolated incident, but Beresford said students are advised, in general, not to walk alone at night and to program the campus police telephone number into their phones. That number is (619) 594-1991.
Anyone with information is asked to call the San Diego police Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
Staff writer J. Harry Jones contributed to this report.
Kristina Davis: (619) 542-4591; kristina.davis@uniontrib.com
