Danny Villalobos, 32 years oldwas stabbed on March 3 outside Valley Food Liquor, just five hours later and 1.6 miles from another stab wound that left Xavier Chavarin, 17, dead.
“Everything happened very quickly,” Villalobos told Telemundo 52 in an interview at his home. “I was about to go to work when I opened the door of my truck, I heard footsteps behind me and when I turned around, I already had a knife in my stomach”,
Villalobos struggled with the suspect, thinking of his three children, ages 6, 8 and 10.
The relatives of Xavier Chavarín are seeking justice after the unexpected death of the 17-year-old boy. The minor had just left his school when he was assaulted. Reporting by Carmen Marquez.
“I thought I was alive for my children and that I had to keep my blood in my body so I wouldn’t die.”
However, he has yet to fully recover from what he said were six stab wounds: three to the stomach, two to the chest and one to the back.
“I think he would have killed me if I hadn’t done anything,” Villalobos said. “I actually still have a lot of bruises from all the fighting with him.”
That night, he recalls, he was packing in front of his truck near Valley Food Liquor.
The truck was rolling and he was about to get in when he heard footsteps behind him. Villalobos turned around, but that’s when the assailant, identified by police as 32-year-old David Anthony Zapata, stabbed him in the stomach.
“I fell to the ground because the blood was flowing a lot of blood,” says Villalobos. “When he let me come with the knife in front of me, I pushed him with both legs and he flew, he flew back and fell. That’s the time he gave me to able to run because there was no light there”.
Alhambra police have arrested a suspect wanted in the fatal assault on a teenager in El Sereno that occurred last Friday.
Hours earlier, the same suspect had fatally stabbed Chavarrin, a 17-year-old student who was waiting for his family to pick him up at a crossroads in El Sereno.
“I’m really sorry for the first victim who didn’t have the same luck as me,” Villalobos said. “It hurts me a lot that a child has to go through this. No one should go through this.”
Villalobos cannot walk long distances but he has the unconditional support of his wife. The six injuries left him with a lot of scars.
“My whole stomach is open,” said the worker. “Well, obviously I couldn’t work. I fight, my life is no longer the same. My body does not work so fast, I have to eat a little every two hours”.
Authorities have released information about the investigation into the death of a student after being stabbed in El Sereno. The young man was waiting to be picked up by his mother after school.
Although Zapata escaped, he was arrested a few days later for murder and attempted murder.
“I felt really good when they caught him because he’s not going to hurt another person,” Villalobos said. “But also sometimes I realize that they had already let him go once. I don’t know, I hope justice will be done for everyone.”
Police are still looking for a second person involved in the case., identified as the driver who left Zapata at the location where he stabbed his first victim. This young man, unlike Villalobos, did not live to tell his story.
Alex Rozier, Jonathan Lloyd and Rudy Chinchilla of sister station NBC4 contributed to this article.