LOCAL : Police Seek Mexican Native in Orange Restaurant Stabbing

ORANGE — Police are searching for a Mexican native in connection with a knife attack on a 24-year-old Latino immigrant who was killed in front of a local restaurant, police said today.

Pedro Rosas, 24, of Orange was pronounced dead at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, where he was taken after police found him in the rear parking lot of Claudia’s Mexican restaurant suffering from multiple stab wounds.

The 9:34 p.m. Thursday attack began when Rosas, sitting in the restaurant, was approached by three Latino men, one of whom was identified as Arturo Vega, 23, also of Orange, police said. Rosas and Vega walked outside the restaurant and began to argue. Vega then allegedly pulled out a large knife and began stabbing Rosas, Gustafson said.

Vega and his two companions then fled as Rosas made his way to the back of the restaurant and collapsed in the parking lot. Police found on a sidewalk the knife believed to have been used in the attack.

Acting on tips by eyewitnesses, police said that they are looking for Vega, who may be on his way to the Mexican border with his 17-year-old pregnant girlfriend.

Vega was described as 5-feet, 8-inches tall, weighing about 175 pounds, with dark eyes, black shoulder-length hair and a light-colored mustache. Vega was wearing a black short-sleeve shirt and multicolored shorts, Gustafson said.