USC student arrested after fatal knife attack on car theft suspect

18 JUNE 2024, 20:44

David Rendon and Sasha Ryu, The staff of Daily Trojan

Friends and family of Ivan Gallegos launched a GoFundMe campaign called “Justice for Ivan” on Tuesday night to raise money for his $2 million bail.

Ivan “found himself in a precarious situation due to the lack of security on his campus,” Violet Gallegos, Ivan Gallegos’ mother, wrote on the fundraiser’s website.

“After hearing a car alarm, Ivan and two friends went to investigate and discovered a man in his friend’s car. When they approached and asked the man to leave, he claimed the car was his and said he had a gun,” the website states. “Feeling their lives were in danger, Ivan and his friends continued to ask the intruder to leave the vehicle and property.”

Shortly after Gallegos and his friends confronted the man in the vehicle, “the man reached for his waist” and Gallegos stabbed him “in self-defense,” the website continued.

In an interview with the Los Angeles MagazineFriends of Gallegos said they called police before the altercation to report the car break-in.

The two friends who were with the magazine on condition of anonymity, “he would not say where (Gallegos’) knife came from or how many times Gallegos stabbed the man.”

At the time of publication, GoFundMe has raised $3,140.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed the statement that Ivan Gallegos’ friends “called the police before the altercation began … (but) not long afterward, the man was dead” to Gallegos’ friends in an interview with Los Angeles MagazineThis article was updated on June 18 at 22:16 to clarify that the statement is a quote from a Los Angeles Magazine Article titled “He feared for his life” – Friends say USC student stabbed man in self-defense.” The Daily Trojan regrets this mistake.