Española emergency medical technician Sahaj Khalsa found himself in familiar surroundings Oct. 2., when he was asking doctors at Española Hospital for a patient’s vital signs. But the situation was unusual because Khalsa was now the recipient, not the provider, of medical care, after he was stabbed nine times outside his home in Valley Estates, according to Española Police.
Khalsa suffered a near-fatal stab wound to his neck and eight more to his torso and arms before he wrestled the knife away from Valentine Harold Gomez and stabbed him twice, causing Gomez’s right lung to collapse, Española Police Sgt. Christian Lopez said.
Khalsa, 33, restrained Gomez until first responders came on scene despite having sustained a near-fatal stab wound to his neck that apparently struck an artery. Gomez, 24, of Santa Cruz, told police he did it “because I’m a bad person,” according to court documents.
Khalsa was Gomez’s second victim of the night — the first was Clifford Cruz, 50, of Velarde, according to police.
Cruz and co-worker Darryl Montoya were getting ready to close John’s Service Station at 8 p.m. when Gomez and his mother Sharon Sanchez, 47, approached the Riverside Drive shop’s front door.
“He said, ‘Help, help, I need help,’” Cruz said. “I looked at the lady, I said, ‘Is it you that needs help?’ She wouldn’t say nothing.”
Cruz said he took two steps forward to get a better look at the pair, when Gomez allegedly swung at him and stabbed him in the right shoulder with the knife blade on a Leatherman Tool. Cruz managed to get back in the store and lock the door, just as Gomez and Sanchez took off southbound.
Montoya told 911 dispatchers that Cruz was stabbed while intervening in a fight between Gomez and Sanchez, but that is not what Cruz told police, or the SUN.
Española Police were combing the area to find Cruz’s attacker when a second call came in from Satshabad Khalsa, Sahaj Khalsa’s wife. Gomez approached Satshabad Khalsa in the family’s minivan as she was pulling into their driveway in Valley Estates, according to court documents. The couple’s two young children were also in the van.
“He catches her by the (van) window by surprise. He’s telling her to get down (out of the vehicle),” Lopez said. “She lays on the horn, Sahaj comes out of the house and sees this guy at the van holding on to the door handle.”
Just as suddenly as he attacked Cruz, Gomez stabbed Sahaj in the neck with the Leatherman blade, police documents state. First responders counted eight more stab wounds inflicted by the two-and-a-half to three-inch blade, plus defensive wounds on Khalsa’s hands. Khalsa was stabilized at Española Hospital before being flown to the University of New Mexico Hospital, Lopez said.
“He’s a paramedic, so he knows exactly how bad he’s hurt,” Lopez said. “At the (emergency room) he was asking for his own vital signs. It’s like dude, just be a patient for once.”
University of New Mexico Hospital had no information on Khalsa’s condition, but Ek Ong Kaar Khalsa, spokesman for the Sikh Dharma community of which Khalsa is a member, said last week he is expected to make a full recovery after undergoing surgery.
“He was quite a hero,” Ek Ong Kaar Khalsa said. “We’re very grateful that he’s someone who knew what to do in that situation.”
For Khalsa’s fellow paramedics, the crime scene was among the most gut-wrenching they’ve been called to, Lopez noted. Not only were they treating a friend and colleague — they were also tasked with saving his attacker, who was taken by ambulance to Española Hospital. Lopez said the paramedics handled the situation with professionalism.
Patsy Manzanares, one of Khalsa’s neighbors who didn’t see the stabbing but watched paramedics clean blood off the driveway the next morning, speculated about Gomez’s motives in the attack. Perhaps, Manzanares said, Gomez was trying to take the Khalsas’ vehicle to flee the scene of the first stabbing.
Cruz said Gomez appeared high to him, and Sanchez was detoxed for the night because she was intoxicated, Lopez said. She has not been charged with any crime in connection with the incident.
Whatever the reason for the seemingly senseless crime, Manzanares and other neighbors feel less safe now in their “nice quiet neighborhood” with its green lawns and neighborhood crime watch stickers.
“This puts everybody on alert — you aren’t safe anywhere,” Manzanares said.
When Gomez was being treated for his wounds at Española Hospital he told police repeatedly, “I need to be forgiven for what I did,” according to court documents. It is not known whether a similar show of contrition convinced state District Court Judge Timothy Garcia to release Gomez from electronic monitoring less than month before this attack.
A little over a year ago to the date, on Sept. 30, 2007, Gomez was arrested by Española Police after he knocked on the door of a Fairview Lane home and struck Joel Estrada in the face with a glass bottle, a police report states. Gomez was arrested the same day, after reporting the car he left parked in front of Estrada’s house stolen, the report states.
Gomez was charged with aggravated battery and was being held on electronic monitoring pending trial until Sept. 12, 2008, when Garcia released him from electronic monitoring, according to an online court records database. The decision came after Gomez’s attorney entered four motions in September requesting a reconsideration of his release conditions.
Garcia did not returns calls for comment on the decision to release Gomez from electronic monitoring.
Gomez has been charged with two counts of aggravated battery with intent to inflict great bodily injury and burglary (for committing a crime in the Khalsa’s garage) for the latest incident, court documents state. After being treated for his injuries, Gomez was transported to McKinley County Jail in Gallup, where he was being held on no bond pending his arraignment.
“This guy needs to be locked up, he’s a very dangerous person, very volatile, you don’t know what he’s going to do from one minute to the next,” Lopez said. “The worst part is, the Sikh community here in town are probably the most peaceful people we deal with.”