San Diego police said Saturday they know the name of a man who was fatally stabbed in San Ysidro last week in an attack they said was unprovoked.
The victim was identified as Manuel Omar Rico Arellano, 42, of Mexico, police homicide Lt. Steve Shebloski said in a news release.
Shortly after 2:20 am on Wednesday, March 8, someone called 911 after finding Arellano suffering from a stab wound at a gas station on East San Ysidro Boulevard near Interstate 805. He was taken to a hospital, where he was treated by a doctor.
He was taken to a hospital, where he died less than an hour later.
According to police, detectives learned Arellano had been stabbed to death in a vacant building on nearby Center Street, near East Beyer Boulevard.
He had been with a group of people “when he was apparently stabbed by the suspect without provocation,” Shebloski said. The victim then went to the gas station.
Detectives identified the suspect as Hector Alcantara, 32, of San Diego, and learned that he likely entered Mexico shortly after the stabbing.
At around 1:30 pm — less than 12 hours after the stabbing — detectives were notified by US Customs and Border Protection that Alcántara had been detained at the San Ysidro border crossing pedestrian checkpoint.
Alcántara was arrested as a murder suspect. He remained jailed without bail on Saturday.
