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The man accused of fatally stabbing a 66-year-old San Mateo resident at the Redwood City Caltrain station had recently been released on parole for a prior knife attack, the Redwood City Pulse has learned.
Jose Gomez-Bustamante, 31, of Redwood City, was arrested Aug. 28, a day after authorities said he stabbed and killed 66-year-old Joseph Carreiro of San Mateo.
It wasn’t the first time Gomez-Bustamante had been involved in a stabbing.
On Aug. 8, 2020, prosecutors said he grabbed a knife from the kitchen of Taqueria El Tulense on Spring Street in unincorporated Redwood City and tried to stab a 34-year-old employee. The woman’s mother held him back. Prosecutors said the attack was unprovoked, and his mother told authorities he suffers from hallucinations.
Gomez-Bustamante pleaded guilty to felony assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced in June 2023 to six years in prison. Records show he was credited for 702 days in custody despite serving 331, due to good behavior and participation in residential treatment programs.
Despite an extensive criminal history, including several parole violations, before the stabbing in 2020, he was released on parole on April 8 of this year, less than two years after sentencing.
Five years after the unprovoked taqueria attack, Gomez-Bustamante is now accused of fatally stabbing Carreiro. The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said the two men, both on bicycles, got into an altercation around 4:45 p.m. Aug. 27 on the southbound Caltrain platform at the Redwood City station. Carreiro was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead later that night.
A woman was also at the scene. Authorities said she is considered a witness, not a suspect.
According to jail records, his parole has since been revoked. The California Department of Corrections declined to provide details on his parole release.
Prior cases and convictions
Even before 2020, Gomez-Bustamante faced multiple felony charges.
In 2012, using the name Jose Luis Gomez, he was charged in a gang-related assault that caused serious injury. Facing up to 27 years, he pleaded no contest to felony assault and a misdemeanor gang charge and was sentenced to three months in jail and three years’ probation. Tacked on enhancements were dismissed, and he received credit for 69 days served and 68 days of “good time.”
Six months into probation, Gomez-Bustamante violated its terms and was ordered to serve 120 additional days in jail. A month later, he was released on parole and charged with driving under the influence with a blood alcohol level above 0.15%, driving without a license and hit-and-run. As part of a plea deal, only the DUI charge remained. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail for the DUI and two years in prison for violating parole.
In 2015, he was charged with felonies in connection to robbery and, in a separate case, possession of drugs with intent to distribute. He ultimately received a six year prison sentence.
Also in 2015, while awaiting trial in jail, he was involved in a gang assault at the Maguire Correctional Facility that left two rival gang members hospitalized and injured four correctional officers. Court records do not show charges for that incident, but media reports at the time say a grand jury indicted him.
“It looked like one of those WrestleMania things you see on TV,” District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told the Mercury News at the time. “They were all going at it.”
Caltrain station stabbing
Friday’s stabbing happened on the southbound Caltrain platform. The area, bordering the Sequoia Station shopping center, has been a hotspot of crime in recent years. The Redwood City Police Department decided to open a substation in the shopping center to help address crime in the area.
The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office’s transit bureau is responsible for patrolling the Caltrain station but works with the Redwood City Police Department and the shopping center’s private security.
As of Friday, the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office had not yet received the case.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated with additional information regarding Gomez-Bustamante’s prior criminal convictions. This article was also updated to reflect the suspect’s immigration status. Gomez-Bustamante is an American citizen.
How does a repeat violent criminal get out having served less than one third of his sentence? The parole board thought he was rehabilitated? Now someone is dead. So sad for the victim and his family.
If the criminal is an undocumented immigrant, then it is extra outrageous that this preventable murder happened. Having a policy to release violent undocumented immigrant convicts into the streets instead of transferring them to ICE for deportation is crazy. We need to elect leaders at the state and local level who care about the safety of their constituents instead of the current policy of suicidal empathy.
In addition to the human tragedy, we will now be paying well over a million dollars to prosecute and jail this repeat offender.