By AARON BURGIN, THE PORTERVILLE RECORDER
Police arrested a man who allegedly stabbed a bar patron in an altercation at The Mint, on the corner of Morton Avenue and Porter Road, and tried to flee the scene in a mini-van late Thursday night.

California Highway Patrol officers thwarted the getaway when they pulled the van over at Sierra Mini Mart on Olive Avenue and Newcomb Street, because they believed the driver was possibly drunk.

Officers from the Porterville Police Department arrested two other men as possible accomplices to the crime. The alleged incident occurred at 10:30 p.m. when the suspect, who is black, was approached by a Hispanic man who reportedly made disparaging remarks about the man’s sunglasses, bar patrons said.

“He was giving the black kid grief about wearing sunglasses in the bar,” bartender Susan Boyd said. “The kid didn’t say anything.” After the suspect went to the bathroom, he, two men and two women went outside of the bar. The suspect then allegedly called for the Hispanic man to come out of the bar, Boyd said.

Minutes later, Boyd said, the Hispanic man re-emerged in the bar with a large laceration across his chest, and was bleeding profusely. “He was bleeding like a stuffed pig,” Boyd said. CHP Sgt. Don Tripp noticed the van leaving the bar with its headlights off westbound on Newcomb, and decided to follow it after he noticed the van was moving erratically.

“I suspected that it was a possible DUI, so I followed it, and that was when I heard over the scanner that there was a possible 245 [assault with a deadly weapon] at The Mint,” Tripp said. “I noticed that someone in the back fit the description of the suspect, he was wearing a white pullover, so I stopped them here [at the mini mart].”

Tripp said he was able to confirm that the man, who was in the back of the van, matched the description of the suspect while in the process of investigating the DUI offense. He then notified Porterville police.

Several cruisers from the Porterville Police Department and the CHP swooped in on the scene and quickly arrested the three men in the vehicle. It is not clear whether the women were arrested. Police did not release the name of the men they arrested. The name of the stabbing victim was also withheld.

For more information, read Saturday’s print edition of The Recorder.

Contact Aaron Burgin at 784-5000, Ext. 1046, or gfaison@portervillerecorder.com.