Suspected Gang Members Jailed in Baseball Bat Assaults at Oceanside Harbor

Two suspected gang members were behind bars Wednesday on suspicion of attacking random passersbys with baseball bats last month alongside Oceanside Harbor.

Detectives investigating the assaults arrested 21-year-old Pablo Francisco Gonzalez of Oceanside and 20-year-old Jorge Luis Perez of Vista on Tuesday, according to police.

Gonzalez and Perez were booked into county jail in Vista on suspicion of an array of charges, including attempted murder, assault, conspiracy, taking part in gang crimes and probation violations.

Gonzalez and Perez allegedly attacked two people in the 1400 block of North Harbor Drive shortly before 9 p.m. Aug. 17, then fled the area in a vehicle, according to the Oceanside Police Department. The victims were hospitalized for treatment of head trauma.

Witnesses reported that the masked assailants appeared to be indiscriminately attacking people who happened by. The perpetrators also confronted a bystander and tried to steal her cellphone, which she had been using to record video of the violence, police said.

A short time after receiving the assault report, the police got information about two people who were being treated for similar injuries at Tri-City Medical Center. Though apparently not associated with the other victims, they had been assaulted in the same area and manner, evidently by the same attackers, police said.

The victims suffered injuries of varying degrees of severity, including head lacerations, and one was left with a facial fracture, according to an OPD statement.

The suspects were being held without bail pending arraignment, scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

City News Service contributed to this article.