Dodgers fan stabbed to death after Giants game: 'good, good kid'

Dodgers fan stabbed to death after Giants game: ‘good, good kid’

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This photo, taken Sept. 25 and provided by Matthew Gomes, shows, from left to right, Jonathan Denver, his father, Robert Preece, and his brother Rob Preece at a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers in San Francisco. (Matthew Gomes / Associated Press)

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San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr speaks at a news conference in San Francisco. Michael Montgomery of Lodi was taken into custody shortly after the incident and will be charged in the slaying of Dodgers fan Jonathan Denver, police said. (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)

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An aerial view of San Francisco’s AT&T Park. A Los Angeles Dodgers fan was stabbed several blocks from the park on the night of the Dodgers-Giants Sept. 25 game. (John G. Mabanglo / EPA)

By Kate Mather

Sept. 26, 2013 5:15 PM PT

The 24-year-old Dodgers fan who was stabbed to death after his team lost to the Giants in San Francisco on Wednesday was described as polite and a “good, good kid” by those who knew him.

Jonathan Denver was pronounced dead at San Francisco General Hospital after he was stabbed at about 11:40 p.m. four blocks from AT&T Park, where 90 minutes earlier the Giants had beaten the Dodgers, 6-4.

“It’s a tragedy,” said 63-year-old Louie Padilla, who lives next to Denver’s father in Alhambra. “I can’t believe that happened to him.”

MORE: Details of the attack

Jonathan Scaramella, 24, said his best friend would go to Dodgers games when he visited his dad in Los Angeles.

Denver was a fan of the team, he said, but primarily because of his father.

“He just likes the Dodgers because of his dad’s connection,” Scaramella said. “He wasn’t, like, going to kill anybody over it. That’s for sure.”

Cas Smith, owner of North Coast Plumbing in Fort Bragg, Calif., said Denver had worked for him for about two years as an apprentice plumber but said he had known him for about a decade.

Smith said Denver asked earlier this week if he could have Wednesday and Thursday off so he and his brother -– whom he lived with in Fort Bragg -– could meet their father in San Francisco for the baseball game.

“I think that he wanted to be down there and have a little reunion with his father,” he said. “I don’t think he was a big baseball fan.

“He’s just a good, good kid,” Smith said. “He was the kind of kid that if an old lady was walking across the street, he would go help her.”

San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr on Thursday offered details of the deadly confrontation between Denver’s group and another group that occurred blocks from the ballpark after the 8th inning.

Police confirmed that Denver was wearing Dodgers gear when he and a person he was with were attacked.

After a “back-and-forth about the Giants-Dodgers rivalry” twice descended into violence, Denver ended up stabbed, Suhr said. He was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The other man Denver was with, whom police did not immediately identify, was bruised after being beaten.

Two men being questioned in the attack -- ages 18 and 21 -- have not yet been identified.

Smith said the news was “devastating” for his crew.

“I told the guys,” he said. “They’re all crying.”

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