Two more arrested in stabbing incident

Two more Petaluma residents were arrested on Saturday in connection with the stabbing of two youths — one of whom has been released from a local hospital — in a gang-related fight near Meadow Elementary School on Feb. 2.

Jacob Lanatti, 18, was arrested after a vehicle stop at around 5 p.m. and Anthony Valentine, 20, was nabbed at his residence in Petaluma at 5:29 p.m. Both suspects were charged with attempted homicide with gang enhancement due to their suspected involvement in the fight.

Another suspect in the case, Petaluma resident Gregory Hansen, 19, who was arrested at an eastside apartment on Feb. 3 for a probation violation, has been formally charged with attempted homicide with gang enhancement. That same day, another Petaluma resident, Alan Arbor, 18, was arrested for attempted homicide with gang enhancement during a high-risk traffic stop on Highway 101, near the Railroad Avenue exit.

All four suspects are being held without bail in Sonoma County Jail.

“After the incident, we wanted to contact a group of suspects. I’m not satisfied that we have contacted everyone who was involved, and don’t know if we will be making additional arrests,” said Lt. Mike Cook of the Petaluma Police Department.

At around 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 2, two young men were challenged by other young males for wearing red clothing on Yarberry Drive at Stillson Drive, near Meadow School. The victims attempted to run away, but the suspects ran after them and caught them.

The suspects stabbed the victims, who are residents of Petaluma, several times and then fled in a vehicle. The victims were seriously injured, and were taken to local hospitals.

One of the victims has been released, but the other victim remains hospitalized.

“We have no information indicating that they have any involvement with gangs,” Cook said.

The Petaluma Police Department’s Street Crimes detectives are still investigating the incident.

Meanwhile, about 15 members each of two rival gangs, Norteños and Sureños, gathered in the concourse area of downtown Petaluma on Saturday night.

“They seemed ready to fight, but fled when police officers arrived,” Cook said.

Beside the incident on Feb. 2, at least two other reported attacks have taken place in Petaluma in which people with no gang ties were attacked simply because they were wearing red clothing, but none have occurred in the past 19 months.

On April 3, 2007, a 16-year-old gang member allegedly told a 12-year-old boy at the Petaluma Skate Park to take off his red shirt. When the boy refused, the gang member hit him on the head.

On May 25 of that same year, Gabriella Garcia Estrada and Reyes Mendoza Jr. reportedly yelled gang slogans while assaulting a Staples employee who was wearing the red store uniform while standing outside the store on South McDowell Boulevard.

And on Jane 25, 2007, in an incident that was possibly gang related, a juvenile was beaten in the head and face by three people after refusing their request to give them his red San Francisco 49ers baseball-style cap on East Washington Street near Water Street.

Capt. Dan Fish of the Petaluma Police Department says that gang activity “always is cyclical.”

“Gang members move around the county, so it’s not uncanny to have about five incidents during one weekend, but then none for a month or two,” he said.

The police department needs more officers to combat gang activity, Fish said. Currently, it has one full-time and two part-time gang-enforcement officers, as well as nine patrol officers who are cross-trained in gang enforcement.

“We didn’t have the resources that we would like to have even before we cut seven positions, and now the situation is worse,” Fish said.

(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com)