ESCONDIDO
–
Police are investigating the slaying of a 17-year-old boy who was found stabbed on East Mission Avenue after reports of a fight at a nearby 7-Eleven.
Gerardo Daniel Medina, a student at Valley High School, was found dead at Mission and Maywood Street, a block from where the fight was reported and about three blocks from his home.
Escondido police Lt. Neal Griffin said dispatchers received a call just after 11 p.m. Thursday about four people fighting near the store at Mission and Midway Drive.
When police arrived a few minutes later, the people fighting had left, Griffin said, but an officer found Gerardo lying on the corner a block away.
“He was clearly a stabbing victim, and it looked at that point he was already dead,” Griffin said.
The boy was pronounced dead at 11:11 p.m., the Medical Examiner's Office said.
Griffin said there is no indication the fight was gang-related, but police are still investigating.
Yesterday, friends and family members gathered in the garage of Gerardo's northeast Escondido home, under a banner that read “No Fear.” They declined to be interviewed; one man said the boy's parents were grief-stricken and unable to comment.
Saundra Silverman, Gerardo's principal at Valley High, said the youngster was reserved and serious.
“He was a very stoic, quiet young man,” Silverman said. She said Gerardo had come to Valley, a continuation school, from Orange Glen High School because of attendance problems.
She said he began attending 11th grade at Valley in late October and was making up missed credits.
“From my interactions with him, he was not a goofy guy,” Silverman said. “He was more on the mature side.”
She said some of his classmates were taking the news of his death hard.
“We're not a big school,” Silverman said, noting that the enrollment is 400. “Yes, we've had tears. . . .
“Unfortunately, many times you find out afterward the qualities the kids had. The kids are saying he was a good friend, somebody they could count on.”
Gerardo worked in a gift store at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, said Christina Simmons, a park spokeswoman. She said he began working there recently.
Police asked that anyone with information about the case call Detective Greg Gay at (760) 839-4404, or the department's anonymous tip line, (760) 743-8477.
Michael Burge: (760) 476-8230; michael.burge@uniontrib.com
