- Video shows kids in the neighborhood, video of the incident, stab wounds
- Daniel Macias moved his family out of East Bakersfield after a violent attack at his apartment complex left him and his pregnant wife at the time of the incident with several stab wounds.
A violent attack at an apartment complex in East Bakersfield prompted one local family to move out of this area to one with less safety concerns.
Wrangling a bunch of energetic kids in the morning is the story of many households during the school year, it was no different for the Macias family.
Marisol Luna’s husband, Daniel Macias, just came back from dropping off their kids at school.
“He came upstairs with my smallest daughter and she had forgot her teddy bear in the car, and he was like you want it, let’s go,” Luna said.
When he went to the parking lot, he noticed their neighbor, Douglas Laughlin, and his son-in-law in an argument with a man they say lived in the complex.
“I had a feeling something wasn’t right that day,” Laughlin said.
Laughlin says the man threatened to fight his son-in-law who recently underwent surgery, so Macias stepped in to help.
“I told him he wasn’t going to disrespect my neighbors," Macias explained. "He wasn’t going to disrespect his elders in front of me and that he needed to leave.”
Macias stepped back and let the man go.
“He jumped up. He run upstairs, and he kept hollering 'I got something for you.' I thought he was going after a gun, I'll be honest with you,” Laughlin said. “When he come downstairs, I mean he had blood in his eyes.”
That’s when the man pulled the knife.
“I tried to just get away to get to safety and unfortunately I fell, and that’s when I was stabbed in the back of my arm,” Macias remembered.
Luna says she called the sheriff’s office during the argument, but when she saw her husband on the ground, she jumped in, saying she was afraid he was hurt.
“I threw my hands in not seeing where or what, and I guess I touched the blade,” she recalled.
After seeing her hands cut by the blade, Laughlin pulled Luna back as other neighbors attempted to take the knife from the man.
“I got her back and was trying to keep her out of it because she’s about to have a baby in a week or two,” Laughlin said.
Later that morning, a nine-month-pregnant Luna underwent surgery in the hospital.
“I was worried after, like the baby. Can we check on the baby? Is she okay?" she said.
Doctors assured her that her baby was doing well, but the reality of the impacts set in for the mom.
“I was looking at my hands and thinking about my kids and doing their hair and just doing a lot of things,” she said.
According to a community crime map from the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, in the last month, KCSO responded to a total of 18 aggravated assault cases.
Of those incidents, 12 of them occurred in East Bakersfield.
I reached out to Leticia Perez the Kern county district 5 supervisor for her response to the violent crimes in her area, but she did not get back to me as of news time.
“I know it was stealing my wife’s peace of mind, so to make her feel better, feel safer. I decided to relocate my family,” Macias said after his wife expressed her concerns for their kids' safety.
In October, the family moved southwest.
Macias lost his job after the incident resulting in a financial burden extending into the holiday season, but despite the setbacks, the family chooses to stay positive.
A week after the incident, Luna gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
“I woke up in a hospital bed. He probably woke up in jail, but I just hope he changes his life for the better,” she said.
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