The victim of a deadly stabbing that occurred early on Wednesday morning next to a San Ysidro gas station has been identified by the San Diego Police Department.
Mexican man Manuel Omar Rico Arellano, 42, was identified as the deceased by police.
According to SDPD, the suspect was taken into custody around 12 hours after the attack.
After getting a complaint of a guy with an upper body stab wound at 2:23 a.m. on March 8, police said they went to a gas station in the 300 block of East San Ysidro Boulevard.
Before being transported to the hospital, where he was eventually declared dead, first responders located the man and began performing life-saving procedures on him.
After being alerted to the area, SDPD homicide detectives discovered that the victim had been stabbed in a neighboring abandoned structure in the 100 block of Center Street. Once the man fell from the building to the gas station parking lot, worried bystanders called the police.
According to the preliminary inquiry, the victim was in the abandoned building with a group of individuals when one of the males attacked him without provocation. According to a news release from the SDPD, detectives were able to identify the suspect as Hector Alcantara, a 32-year-old San Diego resident.
After the stabbing, Alcantara is thought to have fled to Mexico, and this suspicion was later confirmed.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stopped and detained Alcantara at the San Ysidro Point of Entry pedestrian gate, the release claims, and they informed SDPD investigators of this. He was taken into custody on one count of murder after police arrived at 720 E. San Ysidro Boulevard.
San Diego Police Department’s Murder Unit can be reached at 619-531-2293, or you can contact San Diego County Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477 if you have any additional information for the police on this stabbing.