A bar fight turned gruesome Saturday night when an argument at
Pancho’s Mexican Restaurant and Bar led to the street, where a man
was stabbed and died nearby.
the victim’s last minutes of life.
A bar fight turned gruesome Saturday night when an argument at Pancho’s Mexican Restaurant and Bar led to the street, where a man was stabbed and died nearby.
According to witnesses, 35-year-old Rene Ortega was stabbed to death in the 400 block of East Street after the argument inside Pancho’s. The confrontation continued out onto the street, where the victim was stabbed on the corner of East and Fourth streets.
Hollister police Sgt. Dave Westrick on Sunday confirmed the man had been stabbed and killed but provided few other details, and Detective Don Pershall on Monday said the department had no new information on the homicide investigation.
“Our entire investigation unit is actively investigating this right now,” Westrick said.
Paine’s Restaurant owner Tony Garcia said he saw Ortega pleading for help in his final moments after the man had stumbled toward the business at 421 East St. Garcia also said he saw a group of men fleeing the scene.
“I was outside in front where it happened,” Garcia said. “I looked up and saw him staggering toward us, asking for help. Then I saw four guys running up Fourth Street yelling, ‘Run, run, run!'”
Maria Jimenez, owner of Pancho’s, said she was working Saturday night but did not see the argument, which caused her bartenders to close early and force all customers to leave.
“I was working on the restaurant side but I know there was an argument, and my (bartenders) know what to do,” Jimenez said. “They turned the lights on, the music off and said, ‘Everybody out.'”
The two Pancho’s bartenders whom she said witnessed the argument were not working Sunday, and patrons there offered conflicting accounts of hearsay regarding what caused it.
What is discernable is the trail of blood that leads from near the doorway at Paine’s, where Garcia said the man died in front of him, and across East Street to a memorial of flowers, candles and balloons set up in the hours since Ortega’s death.
Family and friends on Sunday were adding a few extra flowers and a photo of a smiling Ortega to the shrine and they somberly retold the few details they had been given by police.
“I know he was arguing with a group of guys at Pancho’s, and then they came out (into the street), and someone had a knife and they cut his neck,” said Lucia Armenta, Ortega’s cousin. “Someone told the police that one of the (suspects) had a strawberry tattoo on his neck. It’s so sad. I just can’t believe this is happening in our little town.”
Bill Mifsud, owner of Bill’s Bullpen near the site of the homicide, said he was shocked to learn the man had died near his store, but he defended downtown Hollister as “usually a great area.”
“It’s a shame that bar fights don’t end in a black eye anymore,” Mifsud said. “It’s bad when you wake up and their is blood on the street and a memorial outside your door of where someone lost their life. It’s a sign of the times.”
