From The Press of Atlantic City — Hammonton Farm worker stabbed; co-worker sought

 

A farm worker was stabbed early Wednesday morning, leaving him hospitalized with a perforated liver and police searching for a suspect they consider “armed and dangerous.”

Emiliano Castro was airlifted to Cooper University Hospital in Camden and was in critical condition before being pronounced stable Wednesday afternoon, according to police and hospital officials. He was stabbed a single time about 1:15 a.m. at Glossy Fruit Farms on South Myrtle Street in the north end of town, police said.

Fellow Glossy worker Jose Francisco Amador-Alfaro is the suspect, police said; the two 21-year-old Mexicans had apparently argued hours earlier. No weapon has been recovered.

“I have no details. It was just a disagreement. … You normally have one a year at least,” co-owner Dave Rizzotte said, although Glossy had not had an argument end in injury that serious in Rizzotte’s 30 years there.

It was the third such attack in three weeks in the county’s farm community. Two workers were stabbed June 26 in an attempted robbery near Oakcrest Farms in Mullica Township’s Nesco section. Another was stabbed on the same farm July 7. All three victims survived.

Glossy Fruit Farms has about 200 people living and working there now, but that number will drop to about 30 when blueberry picking ends in about a week, Rizzotte said.

The slimly built Amador-Alfaro stands about 5 feet 5 inches; an identification photo shows him with a moustache and parted hair to his ears. Anyone with information about his whereabouts or the stabbing should call Hammonton police at 609-561-4000. He could face an aggravated assault charge.

“I know he (Amador-Alfaro) didn’t put in any slips to get paid, so he’s gone,” Rizzotte said.