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Four marines gang stabbing attack { July 31 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nbc4.tv/news/2373648/detail.htmlhttp://www.nbc4.tv/news/2373648/detail.html
Four Marines Targeted In Stabbing Attack
Authorities: Up To 15 People Participated In Attack
UPDATED: 5:26 p.m. PDT July 31, 2003
LOS ANGELES -- Twelve to 15 people attacked four Marines Thursday who recently returned from Iraq, sending two to the hospital for treatment of multiple stab wounds.
The Marines were on foot and looking for somewhere to eat when an argument broke out with the occupants of a green Honda, said Jim Amormino of the Orange County Sheriff's Department. The men in the Honda drove off, but promised to return.
Authorities said the men did come back a few minutes later with several accomplices in other vehicles, then unleashed the attack on the Marines, three of whom suffered stab or cutting wounds.
Investigators reportedly found a 3-block-long blood trail, and witness Brittany Schreiber said one of the victims was "drenched."
An earlier Sheriff's Department report that the Marines were walking home from a bar, and that gang members were involved in attacking them, was erroneous or based on speculation, Amormino said.
The fight broke out near a Chevron gas station at Del Obispo Street and Camino Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano about 12:20 a.m.
Carter Douglass Caroom, 23, was stabbed seven times in the back and chest, according to the Sheriff's Department, and Randall Roach, 22, suffered a stab wound and lacerations.
Both were taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center, where Caroom was initially listed in critical, then serious and finally fair condition by late Thursday afternoon. Roach was initially listed in fair condition, then good condition, according to the hospital.
Steven Brown, 22, and Jason Mack, 27, were able to get away, but one of them was said to have suffered a superficial cut.
The Marines had returned to Camp Pendleton about two weeks ago, according to media reports.
The fact that the service personnel ended up being attacked infuriated Schreiber.
"They put their life on the line and they come over here and our own people are doing that to them. That's ridiculous. That's just wrong," she said.
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