LAKEPORT — What was intended to be a weekend visit to Lake County complete with shopping for babies and a dinner out turned into a horror story for Sheryle Swank, who came forward Monday with a statement as the mother of stabbing victim Alex Larranaga, 19, of Clearlake.
“The first thing that needs to be said here is that my son (Alex) is not a member of gang and has no gang ties. The next thing that needs to be said is that these kids need to be held accountable for this butchery. They butchered my son. I am extremely upset about this,” said Swank in a phone interview with the Record-Bee from Santa Rosa.
According to Swank, Larranaga was in stable condition in the ICU at Santa Rosa”s Memorial Hospital Monday afternoon, where he was airlifted from Lakeport”s Sutter Lakeside Hospital after the attack Friday evening. She said that her son suffered seven stab wounds with serious injuries to his left lung and spine.
“He has a collapsed left lung, and his spine was cut up. They got him in the back, shoulder and arm. He lost a lot of blood.” Swank commented that because of the attack, her son had to be given two pints of blood.
Swank said Alex was stabbed in the protection of his pregnant girlfriend. “He wanted to protect that baby, and they just got him. These kids need to pay for what they have done.”
Swank had a younger son, age 14, with her, said she believed the assault may have been targeted at him, and not the older son.
“I remember he (the 14-year-old) was looking back at the restaurant, waiting for his sister to come out, and he looked backwards. Perhaps they thought he was doing some kind of stare down or something. I don”t know, but as we were leaving, they surrounded my daughter first, and then they were all around us. I was scared for my daughters, the four-year-old. There wasn”t enough of me to protect everyone. If I could have taken that knife for Alex I would have. They just butchered him,” she said.
Swank added that she believed the attack was premeditated.
“I think someone saw those kids when we came in the restaurant, and when we came out, they were waiting for us,” she said.
Swank said she was in town from the Bay Area to spend the weekend visiting with a daughter as well as other family, when they decided to come to Lakeport Friday evening for dinner at TNT (On The Lake).
“We sat down, had a nice dinner, and I was looking forward to shopping for baby things,” she said.
Contact Rick Kennedy at rkennedy@record-bee.com
