1 Man Killed, Several Injured in South Oxnard Street Brawl : Violence: Four are arrested on suspicion of homicide. Witnesses say fight started Saturday between family members in Tijuana, Mexico.

A violent street brawl in south Oxnard involving dozens of people early Sunday left one man dead, several others injured and four men arrested as a swarm of police was called to quiet the melee just after midnight.

According to witnesses, the fight started early Saturday between family members in Tijuana, Mexico, and spread to Oxnard when one side of the family returned home later that night.

But Oxnard police said the victim of the fatal stabbing, 22-year-old Gerardo Dima of Oxnard, had nothing to do with the brawl.

“What’s so sad about this is that Mr. Dima was not involved in the fight,” Oxnard Police Sgt. John Crombach said. “He hears the commotion and comes outside to see what’s going on, and someone runs up and stabs him in the chest.”

Police arrested German Lopez, 18; Julian Lopez, 25; Abelado Lopez, 23, and Cleofas Lopez, 26, all of Oxnard, on suspicion of homicide. They were booked at the Ventura County Jail, according to a statement by Oxnard Police Detective B. Schmalhofer. It could not be immediately determined whether the four are related.

By late morning, the crowded, low-income neighborhood had returned to normal, with street vendors strolling the avenue selling ice cream and fresh vegetables and men working on their cars in front of their homes.

Shreds of tattered yellow police tape lay across sidewalks and in the gutters.

Police said that during the height of the melee, at least 20 people were fighting with knives, baseball bats and 2-by-4s when officers arrived in the 300 block of Cuesta Del Mar about 12:05 a.m. Sunday.

Dima was already lying along the sidewalk with a fatal stab wound to the chest when investigators arrived, police said.

Investigators said they were unsure what caused the fight.

“At this point, everyone is being treated as a potential witness,” Crombach said.

Gerardo Flores, Dima’s cousin, lives across the street from the building where the fight erupted. He said he went outside after hearing screams.

“I just went out to help my cousin and the next thing I knew I got stabbed,” he said, lifting up his shirt to display a thick gauze bandage.

Another witness and cousin of the victim, Cecilia Flores, said that by midnight, more than 30 people were running through the street carrying bats, knives and thick slabs of wood.

“We heard all kinds of women screaming out there calling for help,” she said. “And there was already somebody laying down dead.”

Cecilia Flores said the fight began over the weekend in the border town of Tijuana.

“It was like a family feud or something,” she said. “They brought it back here (Saturday) night.”

An autopsy was performed Sunday on Dima by the Ventura County coroner’s office, with a stab wound to the chest cited as the cause of death.