A New Braunfels man was fatally stabbed early Sunday morning after attempting to break up a fight outside a local event center, police said. Officers were called just after midnight to El Flaco Event Center following reports of a large disturbance in the parking lot involving several people.
When they arrived, they found 52-year-old Mario Saldana suffering from multiple stab wounds. His wife, Rosanna Perez, witnessed the attack and described her husband’s final moments in an interview with KENS 5.
“I told my husband, we needed to leave, let’s go,” Perez said. “Immediately, he’s like, ‘No, let me go tell these people to calm down, they need to stop.’ He was trying to de-escalate the situation.”
Perez said neither she nor her husband knew any of the individuals involved in the altercation. As Saldana approached in an effort to calm tensions, he was attacked.
“He stabbed him first in the chest, several times,” Perez recalled. “We tried to get away, and I guess that wasn’t enough for him. He came and tackled him to the ground and stabbed him in the back.”
Paramedics with the New Braunfels Fire Department transported Saldana to Brooke Army Medical Center, where he later died from his injuries.
Police arrested 55-year-old David Saldana — who is not related to the victim — and booked him into Comal County Jail on a charge of murder. His bond has been set at $500,000. Perez described her husband as a kindhearted man who valued family above all else.
“He wanted everyone to get along, to be happy,” she said. “It’s unfair because he wasn’t in the midst of anything. He wasn’t doing anything. He was trying to stop something from happening. And this person took his life — not only my husband, but a father from his kids, a grandpa from his grandkids.”
Now left to provide for her family without her husband, Perez said Mario had been the primary breadwinner while she stayed home to care for her mother.
“My mother needed us,” she explained. “‘You stay home and take care of her,’ he’d say. It might be a struggle, but we’ll manage.” Friends and relatives have set up a GoFundMe page to support Perez and her family as they cope with their loss. The investigation into the fatal stabbing remains ongoing.