Man Went Door To Door Crying For Help Before Dying Of Stab Wound
Neighbors say they watched a bleeding man stumble down their street crying out for help as he went door to door asking for aid before he finally collapsed on the sidewalk outside their homes.
This quiet Bakersfield community dotted with neighborhood churches, elementary schools and tranquil parks was the scene of a brutal stabbing on Thursday night that left the area covered in blood.
The grisly murder scene was so bloody the Bakersfield fire department was called out to hose down neighborhood driveways the next morning.
Fausto Guzman Flores, 48, died later that day from stab wounds he suffered Thursday night; some neighbors say he lived in the area, but others claim they didn’t recognize him.
They were able to catch the crime on video, though, and one anonymous man turned his camera over to police, according to Bakersfield Now.
“I went and confronted (the police) and said I think I caught these guys on video. One of the kids had their shirt with blood on it. It shows on the video really clear.”
Bakersfield police are still investigating the stabbing, but they’ve arrested three people in connection with the crime.
By Friday night, police had recovered a knife found at the scene and arrested 22-year-old Spencer Rhines, 20-year-old Isaiah Fontana and a 17-year-old for conspiracy, murder and gang participation, reports Bakersfield Now. So far, no motive has been identified for the grisly stabbing.
NE Bakersfield residents on edge after crime spree https://t.co/0UpdmPPJ5t pic.twitter.com/hKPXnXryLF
— 23ABC News (@23ABCNews) March 2, 2016
The stabbing took place on the 5200 block of Gaylene Avenue near Pacheco Road and H Street; the area isn’t known for its crime rate and in fact sits within three blocks of two different schools, a spacious park and a church.
Crime, however, has been on the rise in Bakersfield lately.
This central valley town, two hours away from Los Angeles over the Grapevine, is home to several oil companies and is ground zero for the fracking debate; plummeting gas prices have hit the area hard, forcing many workers into unemployment.
In the last three months, companies like Chevron, Halliburton and Hathaway LLC have cut their labor force by 15 percent, according to 23 ABC News. For every oil job lost, the local economy loses another three jobs.
Bakersfield, Calif. residents vent frustration about downtown crime, call for more #security https://t.co/Y9IFXluFIs
— Security Update (@Security_Update) February 16, 2016
Five miles away from Gaylene Avenue in downtown Bakersfield, the police department has created a special task force in an effort to stamp out the rising level of crime including a shocking number of home invasions and other violent crimes.
Friday, the same day Flores succumbed to his wounds, a 26-year-old woman was shot in the arm while walking down the street at night; the suspect hasn’t been caught. In a separate incident, three men and a woman were arrested for stabbing a 19-year-old at an outside mall.
Then, on Saturday, four teenagers shot a man in a parking lot as he left a store with his purchases.
There were more than 16,000 crimes committed in Bakersfield last year, giving it a 56 percent higher crime rate than the California average and 50 percent higher than the national average. A normal citizen in this central valley town has a 1 in 23 chance of becoming the victim of one of the 12 crimes committed daily, according to Area Vibes.
Local police and sheriffs have been unable to stamp out the rising level crime, and for Fausto Flores, that proved to be too much.
[Photo by David McNew/Getty Images]
