A father who had taken his children to a park in San Juan Capistrano was fatally stabbed after leaving to buy them drinks and snacks, authorities said.
Valentin Onofre Martinez, 31, was returning to his children from a nearby store when he was stabbed several times at about 8:10 p.m. Oct. 7 in a neighborhood near Calle Santa Barbara and Los Rios Street.
Emergency crews transported Martinez to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Several people were detained at the scene, though no arrests have been announced. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the stabbing as a homicide, with its Homicide and Gang Enforcement Team leading the case.
Martinez’s fiancée, Mia, said she realized something was seriously wrong after hearing sirens and receiving a phone call. She rushed to the scene.
“When I got here, everything was already completely blocked off with the caution tape. Hundreds of police,” she told ABC 7.
There, Mia learned that her fiancé—the father of her children—had died. She then had to tell their children that their father would not be coming home.
“They just keep asking for their dad. When is daddy coming back? And I just have to keep telling them that he’s not coming back,” she said.
Mia said the killing was not gang-related and pushed back against suggestions that Martinez had ties to a gang.
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“They’re trying to paint this as something that it’s not, which is gang-related. And if it is then it’s only on one side and it’s not his side,” she said.
She believes Martinez was simply caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I need the answers because I’m just not going to be able to move past it and find closure or anything until I have all the answers and for them as well because they’re going to need answers too,” Mia said.
Mia said Martinez was deeply involved in the lives of their three children, who are 3, 5 and 7 years old. She also said he worked at Home Depot.
“A father that was there every day of his kids life. He never missed a day. He took them to school, picked them up, went to work. He worked at Home Depot nights and still got up to take his kids to school,” Mia said.
A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help cover Martinez’s funeral costs. Its goal is $15,000.
Martinez’s mother described her son as a good person.
“He was a hardworking man, and he took so much care of his family,” she wrote in the fundraiser.
