Victim identified in fatal Valinda stabbing
A 19-year-old musician slain in a Valinda brawl has been identified as Steven Valadez, officials with the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said today.
Valadez was stabbed at about 12:13 a.m. Sunday in the 16200 block of Maplegrove Street during “a fight with several other males” in the unincorporated part of east L.A. County, according to a statement from the sheriff's department. He was taken to a hospital where he died at about 5:15 a.m, authorities said.
Valadez was a member of the La Puente-based band Rumor Has It, which memorialized him on its MySpace page and linked to an article about the incident in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
“To those of you who don't already know, or weren't with us last night. Tragedy struck us hard. Our bass player and brother Steven, was killed last night in an ugly brawl in our hometown,” the message read. “To call Steven a 'friend' would be a total understatement of what he meant to us.”
The message indicated that another band member, Adam Garcia, also was injured.
“As for our future, we're gonna take some time to slowly regroup and try to get over this," the MySpace message stated. "Adam was also wounded last night too. Adam is doing fine, but is still in medical care.”
No arrests have been made, authorities said.
-- Ari B. Bloomekatz
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