GARDEN GROVE : Girl May Be at Center of School Stabbing

A dispute that led to this week’s stabbing of a Bolsa Grande High School student and the arrest of a 13-year-old suspect was apparently touched off by a confrontation over a girl, police said Friday.

Salvadore Ceja, 18, was stabbed Wednesday by a 13-year-old member of a rival gang who went to the Westminster Boulevard campus seeking a girlfriend, Garden Grove Police Lt. Chuck Gibbs said. The younger boy, however, was stopped by members of a gang that Ceja allegedly belongs to, Gibbs said.

“These guys happen to be in rival gangs, and there’s a . . . girl involved,” Gibbs said. “But it wouldn’t be accurate to say (the 13-year-old boy) went looking for the other kids because they were in opposing gangs. It’s probably a combination of both. We don’t know for sure what is the overriding factor here.”

Bolsa Grande High Principal George Willson said the incident, which occurred after school shortly before 3 p.m., began when the 13-year-old boy, a Westminster resident who does not attend the school, went to the campus to meet a girl. However, he apparently was confronted by Ceja’s companions.

“Somebody recognized that this guy didn’t belong here, and they decided to exert themselves,” Willson said.

According to police reports, the confrontation escalated into a fight, during which the 13-year-old pulled a knife and stabbed Ceja twice in the back and once in the arm.

Willson said a custodian intervened and attempted to grab the 13-year-old by his coat, “but the next thing he knew he was standing there with just the coat in his hands.”

School officials administered first aid to Ceja and called authorities. Ceja was flown by helicopter to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he was reported in good condition Friday.

After the stabbing, the 13-year-old boy fled to a nearby apartment, where a friend who is also a gang member lives, Gibbs said. Police tracked him down and arrested him about 7 p.m. He was booked at Juvenile Hall on suspicion of attempted murder. His name has not been released because he is a juvenile.

“We got a lot of cooperation from a lot of witnesses and a lot of different people,” Gibbs said.

Two other juveniles who were in the apartment were also arrested and charged with harboring the 13-year-old, Gibbs said. They were also believed to be members of the gang.

Gibbs said investigators were still attempting to determine which gangs, if any, Ceja and the 13-year-old belonged to, and whether the rivalry was also a factor in the stabbing. “Who’s to say what the motive was?” Gibbs said. “Gang-bangers will fight over dirty looks.”

The gangs involved in the incident are believed to be “newer gangs, offshoots of other gangs,” Gibbs said.

Willson said he also did not know which gangs were involved but added that gang activity was unusual at Bolsa Grande and that the stabbing was the first violent incident there in recent memory.

“This campus . . . is graffiti-free,” he said. “We keep track of what’s going on here. The thing with some of these (gangs) is they’re here today and gone tomorrow. If you’re talking about long-established groups, to this point, we haven’t had them.”