Huge San Jose Brawl, Stabbing After Music in the Park May Have Been Race War

A brawl that left five teens with stab wounds or other injuries may have been a race battle or a turf war sparked between two large groups after the popular downtown Music in the Park event, police said Friday.

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Department spokesman Officer Jose Garcia said detectives are looking into the possibility the fight was a race or turf war, noting half the group was Hispanic and the other half was black. He said the groups, which exchanged words before the fight, might have simply been “posturing.”

Part of the confusion centers around the fact that there were up to 60 people in the area either involved in the fight or witnesses to it, yet some of them have been unwilling to cooperate, Garcia said.

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Last July, a teenager was arrested after a stabbing during the event. A month later, a fight involving more than 40 people broke out at a 7-11 store after a concert–one person was knocked unconscious and another person whipped out a gun–and shortly thereafter, down the street, someone was shot.

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