Wildwood Cops Say Two Men Violently Assaulted, Same Day

WILDWOOD – Police are trying to determine if two violent assaults, one early Monday morning, the other about six hours later, are related. Both left area men beaten and bloodied to the point of hospitalization. One was airlifted, cops said, and the trails of blood detectives followed in each case crossed over in the same general area of the city.
According to Police Chief Steven Long, assault number one left a 21-year-old North Wildwood man bleeding so badly from the face that he was transported to the hospital immediately after being located by police. The victim, Herman Vasques Perez, was found in the area of Schellenger and Pacific avenues around 1:18 a.m. April 18.
Long said Perez was bleeding profusely when cops answering a 9-1-1 call arrived. His injuries were so severe, they provided detectives with a blood trail leading back to the 200 block of East Davis Avenue. There, Long told the Herald, cops found a large rock with blood on it and some broken glass.
Roughly six hours later, police received another distress call, this time for a medical assist at the Bala Motel, 4116 Pacific Ave.
Detectives said when they arrived at the motel lobby at 7:20 a.m. they found a man beaten so badly a medical helicopter was called to airlift him to Atlantic City Medical Center.
Police told the paper they believe the victim was beaten with a pipe.
In addition to sustaining serious head trauma from some blunt object, cops said the man also had a two-inch laceration between his nose and upper lip caused by a sharp object. They didn’t elaborate on whether it was caused by a knife, glass or some other cutting tool.
Cops said the victim, only identified as an unemployed black man living at the motel, left a blood trail similar to the North Wildwood man beaten earlier that same day. Both trails intersected at some point, police said, but they were not specific about where that occurred. Police would only say the men were beaten in the same general area of town and could be related cases.
Based on a description provided by the victim in the second case, police are looking for a Hispanic male, 5-foot-5, about 130 pounds. Cops said he was wearing a dark-colored hooded jacket.
Anyone with information is asked to call Wildwood police at (609) 522-0222. Admittedly, Long said it’s not much for cops to go on and detectives hope to talk to each victim further about their assailants as violent assault crimes continue to escalate in the city.
Last month, an unsuspecting passerby was knocked to the ground by an attacker using a rock. In that incident, a 54-year-old city resident was walking home from a bus station in the 100 block of East Montgomery Avenue around 7 a.m. when a rock-wielding assailant hit him in the head and stole his wallet.
The victim needed four staples to close his wound, Long said. The attacker remains at large.
Similarly, a city man, Juan Rivera Gonzales, was stabbed four times earlier this month and hospitalized. The incident happened in the early evening hours near Roberts and New Jersey avenues.
Cops said then drugs might play a part in the case. The investigation is still ongoing.