‘They Didn’t Have to Try to Kill Me’ : Man Stabbed Over Stolen Bike

A 37-year-old Buena Park man who was jumped by a group of more than 20 youths after he accused them of stealing his bicycle was in stable condition Friday at UCI Medical Center with stab wounds in his chest and both arms.

“I just wanted my bike back. They didn’t have to try to kill me,” Darrell Schrader said in an interview.

Schrader was attacked with rocks, knives, baseball bats and broken bottles, police said. Two other victims--Daniel Reeves, 21, and Richard Black, 25, of Buena Park--were injured but not hospitalized, Buena Park Police Sgt. Mac McNeilly said.

The incident occurred about 8 p.m. Thursday after Black went to Schrader’s house and told him that Schrader’s bicycle had been stolen outside a market on Beach Boulevard.

Black, who had borrowed the bicycle, said witnesses told him they had seen a group of Latinos taking the bicycle, McNeilly said.

Schrader said he and Black went searching in a car for the suspected thieves and picked up Reeves on the way. The three later confronted six youths in an alley on Fullerton Street, where Latino youths frequently gather.

“I told them, ‘You guys stole my bike, and I’ve always been cool to you,’ ” Schrader said.

That set off the confrontation. Schrader said he was braced for a fight but didn’t expect the size of the opposing force.

“They were falling from the sky,” he said. “There must have been 23 or 25 of them. There were bottles flying, and dudes were jumping out of their cars.”

Schrader and Reeves managed to fight their way back inside the car and drove off with the doors still open and the youths still trying to smash the car with rocks and baseball bats, he said.

When the police arrived most of the group had fled, but two adults and four juveniles were picked up in connection with the attack, McNeilly said. One adult was released later without being charged, he added.

Soloman Diaz, 21, of Buena Park, was held on suspicion of attempted murder and assault and battery on a police officer, police spokesman McNeilly said.