“When I first moved to Hemet, I could leave my car unlocked. Now you can’t go out after it gets dark,” Karen Cocchiaro said. “For a child in the daylight not to be able to walk outside, it’s a sad, sad day.”
A teenager places flowers at a cross during a vigil for Eric Sargeant Jr. on Tuesday, Jan, 15, in Hemet.
More than 200 people gathered on a Hemet cul-de-sac Tuesday evening, Jan. 15, near the spot in East Hemet where a 16-year-old boy was stabbed by multiple attackers a day earlier and who later died.
Eric Sargeant Jr. was pronounced dead at 10:17 p.m. Monday, Jan. 14, in Riverside County Regional Medical Center of wounds suffered in the attack, according to the Riverside County coroner’s office.
The boy, a student at Hemet High School, was found at 4:45 p.m. near the intersection of Acacia Avenue and Cherrywood Drive and was airlifted to the county hospital. Witnesses told deputies they saw three or four youths in dark clothing attack the boy and flee through a vacant field northwest of the intersection, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
The suspects were still at large Tuesday.
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