2 Stabbed, 1 Beaten in Highland Park

Two men were stabbed and a third was attacked in an apparent racial incident early Monday on York Boulevard in Northeast Los Angeles, police said.

Joe Beltran, 24, of Arizona and Larry Delgado, 20, of Hacienda Heights were each stabbed once in the chest about 1 a.m., Los Angeles Police Detective Ron Whitt said.

The men had been driving around the Highland Park area looking for their uncle, Jack Delgado, 40, also of Hacienda Heights. They found him at York Boulevard and Avenue 54 involved in an altercation with five men described by police as gang members.

When Beltran and Delgado went to the aid of their uncle, a fight broke out between them and the assailants, resulting in stab wounds to the two men, police said.

Jack Delgado, who was not injured, drove the victims to White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles, where they were treated for chest wounds. Beltran was reportedly treated and released and Delgado was listed in stable condition Wednesday at White Memorial.

In a second incident, James Davis, 41, a transient, was assaulted and pushed through a plate-glass window, police said. Davis, who is black, told police he was attacked about 12:15 a.m. in the parking lot of a grocery store in the 6200 block of York Boulevard in Highland Park by two white males who yelled a racial slur at him.

The men hit Davis with their fists and then pushed a shopping cart against him after he tried to escape, Davis told police. When he tried to get away a second time, his attackers pushed him through the store’s window, he said.

Davis suffered minor cuts to the side of his head and told police he would seek medical attention on his own.

Because the suspects used a racial slur against Davis, the assault is being investigated as a hate incident, Whitt said.