As a San Jose State student wrote his essay the night before a final, he heard the screams of a woman lying on the floor outside of his apartment.
“The screams, you fuckin’ felt them,” the student said.
The student, who asked not to be identified, said he saw the victim and heard the attack firsthand.
“I start to walk outside and I step on top of, like, the porch and I kind of lean out sort of onto the sidewalk and try to see what's going on on Tenth street,” the student said. “That's where I thought the screams are coming from, yo. And then all of a sudden I hear a scream for help, like, right behind me.”
A man later identified by the San Jose Police Department as Victor Magana, 24, allegedly stabbed his ex-girlfriend and kidnapped their daughter Sunday night two blocks south of campus, according to a SJPD news release.
For many living in the dwellings that surround SJSU, crime scenes are a common sight downtown. However, only some of these crimes make it to SJSU email alerts.
Hours later, a man allegedly committed a strong arm robbery on a street adjoining San Jose State’s dorms, according to an SJSU alert. Officers from the University Police Department and the San Jose Police Department responded to the stabbing and kidnapping Sunday night, and an unrelated robbery closer to the school, at 2:45 a.m., Monday morning.
The robbery took place on East San Salvador and South Tenth Street, which is at the border of the school’s Clery geography.
Universities receiving federal funds must disclose crime information regarding the safety and security of the institution, according to the Jeanne Clery Act.
“For an alert it has to be within our Clery geography, for an emergency alert,” UPD Capt. Frank Belcastro said.
This includes any building owned or controlled by an officially recognized SJSU organization such as fraternities and sorority houses.
The school’s policy on non-campus areas says, “any building or property that is owned or controlled by SJSU, used in direct support of (or in relation to) our educational purposes, is frequently used by students, is not within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of SJSU and does not meet the Clery Act definition of a “Separate Campus.”
However, many SJSU students are pushed to live in residences within a few blocks radius of campus because it is cheaper than the dorms.
But those residences don’t fit within UPD’s Clery geography.
The student who found the victim of the stabbing lives outside of the school’s Clery boundaries.
“Ideally if I could move, I’d like to move, even on campus,” the student said. “But on campus, it’s too expensive.”
Despite having seen other crime scenes in near his residence, the student said this is the first time he has seen a victim up close.
“It was one of the most traumatizing things I’ve ever seen,” the student said. He said he saw the victim crawling in the parking area of his residence.
He and his roommates rushed outside to help the woman after calling 911.
“We both go outside and that’s when we start to see her face. Her face was mad bloody,” the student said. “She comes back to, and starts yelling, ‘My baby’s still in there, my baby’s still in there.’ ”
The student said he saw a wire tied around her neck.
“You know how when you do a knot on your shoe, the first knot, how it wraps around to tighten your shoelace,” the student said. “It was like that around her neck, super tight.”
The woman, as of Monday, is in critical but stable condition at a local hospital according to the SJPD news release.
Following an issued Amber Alert, the daughter and man were found at a gas station in Cambria after civilians recognized Magana’s car and detained him according to the SJPD news release.
Many San Jose State students live in the area where the crime occurred on the corner of William Street and Eleventh Street.
For now the student takes the Spartan Safe Ride program bus home. The bus transports students several blocks north, south, east and west of campus, from 7:30 p.m.-1 a.m.
“If it’s anytime past dark, I don’t fucking walk home,” the student said. “It’s too shady. I walk home with a laptop, a camera. This is like $2,000 worth of gear so I don’t want to be a target, especially when I need that gear to pass classes.”
But the student still had his final to worry about the next day.
“I have been told by friends, you know, that the wellness center offers counseling and stuff,” the student said. “But I think at this point I like I’m good. I think I made the choice that night to go outside, right, I could I could have just turned up the music and stayed inside.”
However, he said that the school should focus mental health resources on residents who live in the area and may have witnessed or experienced traumatic events.
“That sort of stuff is very traumatic,” the student said. “It leaves things ingrained in your brain.”
The student said he has never witnessed something as bloody and violent firsthand.
“These things are things that are, you know, engraved in my mind,” the student said. “I try not to focus on them too much.”
