A store clerk and a Visalia firefighter were stabbed while helping foil a robbery at a Save-Mart store Saturday afternoon on the 5200 block of Walnut Avenue, Visalia police and firefighters reported.
The clerk, 25-year-old Billy Campos, and the firefighter received "superficial non-life-threatening wounds," according to Visalia police. Visalia firefighters reported that the firefighter — who was not identified in either the police or fire reports on the incident — was treated and released at Kaweah Delta Hospital.
There was no word on Campos' condition or whether he required any hospitalization.
A suspect, John Marcial, 19, of Visalia, was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.
Visalia police reported that the series of events started just after 4 p.m. Saturday when the suspect entered the Save-Mart store, "obtained several bottles of liquor and exited the store without paying," police stated.
Store employees then tried to detain the suspect, and a struggle ensued, police said. Visalia Fire Dept. Capt. Brian Adney reported that a "Visalia Fire Department Truck Company Crew was in the area of Save-Mart near Walnut [Avenue] and Akers [Street]" and noticed two Save-Mart employees involved in a "physical altercation" on the sidewalk in front of the store.
While attempting to subdue the suspect, one firefighter sustained a "minor puncture wound to the back of the neck from a knife that the citizen [suspect] had in his possession," Adney stated.
Adney did not mention Campos in his report, but Visalia police reported that Campos also received "superficial" wounds.
Marcial, the suspect, was booked into the Tulare County Main Jail on suspicion of armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon, and on an arrest warrant stemming from an unrelated case, Visalia police said.
The case remains under investigation by both Visalia police and firefighters.
Courtesy The Visalia Times Delta
