SAN DIEGO – After a recent string of attacks reported in Downtown San Diego, residents and businesses are on guard as law enforcement stress caution, alertness and mindfulness of one’s surroundings.
Sunday afternoon, three attacks occurred downtown within a 30-minute timespan, all within walking distance.
The third ended in an arrest at Ralph’s grocery store on G street.
The attack follows an uptick in violence throughout the month of January, leaving residents on edge.
“I mean what is that? What happened to our neighborhood?,” said Jeannene Moy, a resident who lives nearby.
Moy has a lot of questions following the slew of assaults near her apartment.
“When I lock my door, I feel safe. It’s only when I come out here, that I don’t feel safe,” Moy explained.
The 30-minute-long crime spree started at Horton Plaza where one victim was hit with a piece of wood, another person was punched in the face at a massage parlor and the third was hit in the head with a wine bottle at Ralph’s.
All victims were treated with non-life-threatening injuries.
“Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve had a series of different events where it seems like it’s random attacks where we have multiple victims and a single suspect,” said Lt. Adam Sharki with the San Diego Police Department.
This violence follows a deadly shooting spree on Friday night that killed one person and injured three others.
The shooting happened in Encanto and Bay Terraces. This also comes after a string of six attacks including two stabbings downtown last Monday as well as another deadly shooting near Petco Park on January 20th.
According to authorities, all these suspects were taken into custody.
“Our goal is prevention. We would like to be able to prevent these crimes from happening, but when they do happen the officers responded very quickly, and they are able to get the person into custody and put them in jail,” Lt. Sharki said.
Meanwhile, residents like Moy, are still staying alert amid this series of random attacks, now forced to reckon with a new reality.
“On a scale of one to 10 it’s getting up to a nine,” Moy answered when asked how she would describe the level of violence in her area.
Law enforcement, now leaving San Diegans with this last message and piece of advice.
“When you see this stuff in the news it’s front of mind, so it’s normal to make people feel uneasy. This comes back to, if people want safety tips, being aware of your surroundings is probably the best thing you can do. We spend all this time buried in our phones other than paying attention to what’s in front of us or what’s around us,” Lt. Sharki shared with Fox 5.