Whittier police are still looking for the two men who chased and fatally stabbed Joseph Magdaleno

Whittier police are still looking for the two men who chased and fatally stabbed the 21-year-old Whittier man. A bleeding Magdaleno collapsed in a stranger's house and died. Officers don't know yet the motive behind the attack. "Senseless. Senseless. I don't know why people are so cruel. Look what they did to us," Avina said Tuesday. "I felt like they took my heart and cut it out of my chest." Naranjo saidit will be too difficult and sad to be in the house where his son was raised. Christina Avina of Whittier holds a portrait of her son, Joseph Magdaleno, 21, on Tuesday, February 3, 2009. Magdaleno was stabbed to death on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009, on the 12700 block of Warman in Whittier. "And always, always I tell my son, `Jose be careful out there. If you see something bad, just walk away and come home. I don't want your mom calling me that something happened to you," Naranjo said.
Magdaleno died of a stab wound to the chest, according to Lt. Larry Dietz of the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. Whittier police Officer Jason Zuhlke said Magdaleno was associated with a gang and his attackers are suspected gang members.
But his parents said their son was not a gang member. He's had minor run-ins with the law. Court records show he was convicted of being under the influence of a controlled substance on Feb. 8, 2007 and on Oct. 6, 2008, he was found guilty of fleeing from a pursuing officer and being under the influence of alcohol while in a vehicle. Deputies arrested him Jan. 15, 2009 and released him on a citation the next day. Avina said last month's arrest was for a traffic warrant and that deputies let her son go. In the 2008 incident, she said he didn't have a license and had been drinking. She said he didn't stop for the officer but was only going 25 mph.
Magdaleno recently worked at a warehouse in Santa Fe Springs but was laid off, according to Avina. The Pioneer High School graduate has two sisters and was the father of a little girl who turns 5 today. In elementary school, Magdaleno was in the Young Marines program. Avina said her son planned on joining the Marines but a lump under his arm turned out to be cancerous. He underwent an operation at City of Hope in Duarte three years ago. Avina said Magdaleno was the type of guy that if you called him to get your yard mowed, he'd do it. "My son was a good boy. He grew up here. He knew the people around here," she said, adding that many people have been dropping by the house to pay their respects. "They can't believe my son was killed like this."