3 Sought in Fatal Attack on Pair at Beach

Police searched Monday for three men suspected of fatally stabbing a man and wounding a Huntington Beach woman as the couple strolled on the beach early Sunday morning.

Christopher Dewayne Barreto, 25, of Culver City, was tackled and stabbed repeatedly as he lay in the sand after handing over money and jewelry to the robbers about 2:40 a.m., police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

His girlfriend, a 22-year-old from Orange County, was stabbed in the stomach but was able to run and flag down a nearby patrol car. She was in good condition Monday at a local hospital, police said. Police declined to release her name for her protection.

Police spent much of the day Sunday combing over the crime scene, about three blocks south of the Manhattan Beach Pier, even bringing in a beach sweeper that sifts through the sand. The intensive search did turn up evidence, said Sgt. Dave Ferguson, though he declined to elaborate.

The suspected attackers, described as three males in their late teens or early twenties, were last seen driving north on Manhattan Avenue in what witnesses described as a beat-up, medium-sized, white or light-gray car.