By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Two men face felony assault charges after allegedly stabbing and cutting a man in south Del Rio, police said.
Gerardo Raul Garza, 29, 803 E. Sixth St., and Juan Harvey De La Rosa, 33, 110 Cordelia St., were arrested on Oct. 24 and Oct. 26, respectively, and have both been charged with the offense of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony, according to arrest reports released recently by the Del Rio Police Department.
In an affidavit filed in the case, DRPD Detective Oscar Gonzalez wrote DRPD officers were dispatched to Salas Better Burger, 913 E. Ogden St., at 9:05 p.m. on Oct. 24 after police received a call about a man there who appeared to have been stabbed.
“Somebody, one of the employees there at Salas, because they were closing up shop, so they were cleaning and one of the cooks, I believe, calls the manager, ‘Hey, somebody’s bleeding.’ (The victim) was in the restroom, and he had been helped there by another male individual, and the victim went inside to try and wash up a little bit and then came outside and went to sit on a bench, and that’s where the officers encountered him,” DRPD Detective Joshua Garcia told the 830 Times in an interview about the case.
The injured man was identified as Leopoldo Rivera Narvaez, 37, a resident of Del Rio.
Officers who responded rendered first aid and called for an ambulance.
“The patrol officers on scene rendered aid to him as best as they could until EMS arrived. He was taken to Val Verde Regional Medical Center, and as soon as he arrived, he went into surgery. He was transferred to a hospital in San Antonio a few hours later.
He was seriously injured . . . He had a gash from his forehead all the way to the back of his head. It was a big laceration, and from what the victim told one of the nurses, that wound was made by a machete,” Garcia said.
“The victim also had a deep cut on his left hand, which almost completely severed the hand, and he also had two puncture wounds to the left side of his ribs, one on the upper left shoulder blade, and the nurses said he also had several stab wounds on his inner thighs, near the groin,” Garcia added.
In his affidavit, Gonzalez wrote Narvaez identified the two men who had assaulted him and said officers also determined Narvaez had been injured at a residence at 405 Ash St.
As officers canvassed the area, Gonzalez wrote, one of them stopped a gray Mitsubishi passenger vehicle with expired buyer’s tags and arrested its driver for the traffic violation.
Gonzalez wrote Garza, the driver of the Mitsubishi, was identified as one of the alleged assailants and later charged with the felony assault offense.
Gonzalez wrote detectives backtracked Narvaez’s blood trail from Salas to a residence at Stanley and Ash streets and located the second suspect, De La Rosa.
“During the course of our investigation, we ended up getting two arrest warrants for Gerardo Raul Garza and Juan Harvey De La Rosa (on the aggravated assault charges), and that was through viewing body camera footage, interviews and the victim identifying his assailants. We also had a witness who wished to remain anonymous who corroborated the victim’s story and a photo lineup was done in which the suspects were positively identified,” Garcia said.
“The only thing prior to him (Narvaez) going unconscious was that he said went to hang out and was jumped by two individuals, and they started stabbing him. He said one of suspects told him he was disrespecting them and their spouses,” Garcia added.
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