Teen Robbers Stab Younger Boy in Back : Violence: 12-year-old and friends are attacked while walking home from the movies. He suffered a punctured lung but is expected to recover.

Gene Brezeale didn’t expect to be spending Christmas Eve in the hospital.

Wednesday night, the 12-year-old was on his way home from seeing “Beethoven’s 2nd” at a local movie theater when he was stabbed in the back during a robbery by a group of teen-agers.

“I told them I was sorry I didn’t have any money and pulled everything out of my pockets,” the seventh-grader said Thursday from his bed at UCI Medical Center in Orange. “But they called me a liar, socked me in the face, then stabbed me. . . . “

Brezeale, who just completed his second season at left tackle for a Junior All-American Football team in Westminster, suffered a punctured left lung. He is listed in good condition and is expected to recover, hospital officials said.

Police said the boy and four friends were walking in the 6300 block of Westminster Avenue about 8:40 p.m. when five teen-age males in a Toyota Corolla got out of the car and attacked them.

“This looks like a crime of opportunity with older kids picking on younger kids,” said Sgt. Mike Schlisky. “It is very unusual to have a 12-year-old being stabbed.”

Police described the suspects as in their mid to late teens who might be members of a local street gang. No arrests have been made.

“They got out and started chasing after me and my friends,” Brezeale said. “I was running with my bike because my chain had fallen off. I threw down the bike and started running. I started banging on the door of a flower shop but no one was there. I thought they had a gun.”

After he was stabbed once in the back by one of the teen-agers, Brezeale and his friends ran into a nearby pool hall, where he collapsed on the floor.

“I was lying on the ground thinking they were going to catch me,” he said.

Family members were at the boy’s bedside Thursday, grateful that he survived the attack but angry that it happened at all.

“Something has to be done,” said Gene’s brother Jake, 28. “My brother and his friends aren’t involved in any kind of gangs. This was just a bunch of innocent kids coming home from the movies. He emptied his pockets out and it wasn’t good enough for them.”

Jake Brezeale said he hoped the stabbing would send a warning to other youths to be careful and to avoid being out late at night. “Maybe this will bring attention to how things have gotten out of hand,” he said.

The boy’s 51-year-old mother, Moira Brezeale, said she felt terror and concern when police arrived at her door Wednesday night with the news that her youngest son had been stabbed.

“I wish they would leave the kids alone,” said Moira Brezeale, a mother of five who moved her family to Westminster more than 30 years ago. “That is my plea to these people. Why take it out on the kids? People are so bad nowadays. It’s very sad.”