Young teen stabbed at Sonoma County Fair

Sonoma County Fair officials said Wednesday morning there will be a substantial increase in police and security officers after a gang-related stabbing on the opening day of the fair.

Police said the fight Tuesday night was between rival gang members and it left a 13-year-old Santa Rosa resident with a knife wound, which was described as not life-threatening.

His condition was not available Wednesday.

The fight occurred at the carnival area at 8:39 p.m., police said.

“It is unfortunate. The fair is all about kids and community. There are these few bad apples out there who hopefully will not discourage people from coming,” said Tawny Tesconi, the fair manager.

Tesconi also said the incident occurred despite what she said was already a strong presence of both private security and Santa Rosa police on the fair grounds.

“I think we have a strong safety element to our event,” Tesconi said. “Unfortunately what happened had nothing to do with the fair. It was an outside incident brought into the fair.”

One Santa Rosa resident attending the fair Tuesday night, however, said he saw a group of what he believes were a dozen gang members trying to pick fights and bullying others.

“We must have broke up three or four fights between gang-bangers and people out there who want to have fun, who were being harassed,” said Peter Fetters.

Fetters said that he did not see police or security officers during those altercations.

“That was probably the most disturbing thing,” Fetters said. “We will never bring our kids back, not until the police start sending a gang unit out there.”

Tesconi disputed that there were not enough police or security.

“I was out on the carnival lot all last night, in my opinion the private security was doing its job, and you couldn’t go more than 100 feet without running into a police officer,” Tesconi said. “They work in zones and they did a good job of it.”

No arrests have been made, but Santa Rosa police Sgt. Lisa Banayat said they were following up leads Wednesday morning.

“It’s never too easy to determine if it is worse this year or not, the fair just started,” Banayat said. “It was gang-related.”

The stabbing was the first serious incident at the fair since 2005, when police shut down the fair early because of fights and large crowds.

Police said the stabbing occurred when the victim and a friend, also a Santa Rosa resident, were confronted by rival gang members and challenged to fight.

The group eventually attacked the victims while yelling gang names and epithets, police said.

Tesconi said that there are a dozen Santa Rosa police officers and 22 private security officers on the grounds.

Tesconi said the fair has cut back on the contract with the security company V&G Services, but she said it only affects the number of security workers outside the main grounds, at such areas as at the recreational vehicle lot or the horse gate.

Beginning Wednesday night, Tesconi said there will be more private security officers and more Santa Rosa police both in uniforms and in plain clothes, including the department’s gang task force.

Fairgoers are also subjected to a metal detector, which has been in use for about 10 years.

Tesconi said the detectors would have found a knife, but it could have also been thrown over the fairgrounds fence.

The fair Tuesday drew 25,304, a 21 percent increase over last year, but Tesconi cautioned against making early comparisons because this year the opening day was free for seniors.

“Our numbers did show we have more people, we don’t know how that will play out over 14 days,” Tesconi said. “That is an amazing increase.”