OAKLAND — Charges have been filed in the stabbing death of a man last month at a park in East Oakland, prosecutors said.
In addition to murder, Oakland resident Ottoniel Sales Garcia is charged with assault with a deadly weapon, according to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.
The victim — identified as Aldon Rochel Mata Cardona, 19, of Oakland — was found suffering from at least one stab wound at San Antonio Park in the 1700 block of East 19th Street around 6:50 p.m. on May 23, according to the Oakland Police Department. He was taken to an area hospital, where he died a few hours later.
Police believe Mata Cardona spent several hours at the park before he got into a dispute with another person and was stabbed. Sales Garcia was later arrested in connection with the killing, the 20th homicide investigated by Oakland police this year.
Mata Cardona came to the United States from Guatemala four years ago, according to a relative. He worked as a waiter in Alameda and lived a few blocks from the park, where he both played and watched soccer games. The relative, who did not want to be named, said Mata Cardona was a “low-key guy” who “loved soccer and other sports.”
Sales Garcia is scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning at the Wiley Manuel Courthouse in Oakland.
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