NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—One man is in stable condition after being stabbed and undergoing surgery, while another victim in the same incident was arrested on his way out of the hospital on an unrelated warrant.

It was a busy night for city police on March 28, especially around the time of last call at the city’s 50+ bars.

Mi Tierra, a bar at the corner of Jersey Avenue and Handy Street in the city’s Fourth Ward, was the scene of three stabbings in the early morning hours of Sunday, March 29, according to a police press release. 

“The preliminary investigation suggests that a fight broke out inside the bar between multiple combatants,” reads the NBPD release.

Between 1:30am and 2am, police were also investigating a six-car motor vehicle accident, a large fight inside the downtown nightclub Perle, and a group of disorderly persons on Easton Avenue.

But the most serious “disturbance,” or at least the only one to result in an official press release from the New Brunswick Police Department, all happened in the same bar.

In all, three people were stabbed in incidents stemminig from Mi Tierra, and all were treated at nearby Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

Pascual Ruiz, a 27-year-old man from New Brunswick appears to have been injured seriously.  The press release said he was stabbed in the abdomen, underwent surgery, and “is stable at this time.”

“Looks like a stab wound to his left side. Possibly in the lung,” said an officer on scene, according to police radio transmissions.

Carloz Vasquez, a 23-year-old man from New Brunswick was also stabbed in the leg, and 24-year-old German Vasquez, also from New Brunswick, was stabbed in the arm.

While at the hospital detectives learned of an unrelated active warrant for Carloz Vasquez.

“He was arrested upon his discharge from the hospital,” reads the police press release.

According to police radio transmissions a security guard was also injured in the incidents, but he refused to be taken away in an ambulance.

Unlike in some other stabbings, the management at Mi Tierra was quick to clean up the crime scene.

“There is no scene at Mi Tierra.  All the blood got mopped up by the staff here,” said an officer in the bar.

The investigation is not over yet, and police did not identify any suspects in the initial press release.

“Detectives continue to investigate the events which led up to the assault and piece together the stories told by the victims in correlation with video surveillance footage.”

This investigation is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Drew Weiss at (732) 745-5217. 

Editor at New Brunswick Today | 732-993-9697 | editor@newbrunswicktoday.com | Website

Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.

Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.