Two teenagers sustained two non-life-threatening wounds during a stabbing that may have been in self-defense during an altercation on a municipal bus Wednesday evening, Oct. 30.

The stabbing was reported at 6:57 p.m. in the 1300 block of Holm Avenue, an unincorporated area of the county near the Ceres city limits.

One of the victims, a 14-year-old boy, was flown by air ambulance to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento but his wounds proved to not be as serious as originally thought, said Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Sgt. Veronica Esquivez. A 17-year-old teen was rushed to Memorial Medical Center for treatment of his wounds, which included lacerations to his arm, a punctured lung and fractured ribs.

“There was a fight between four juveniles and a male adult inside the bus,” explained Sgt. Esquivez. “The four teenagers get on the bus and then a fight immediately starts so it was the four juveniles against the Hispanic male adult. The adult didn’t start anything. They get in a fight and the male pulls out a knife at one point and he stabs two of the kids.”

The man with the knife was a passenger and he left the scene before authorities arrived. He appeared to be in his 20s.

The fight may have been gang related, said Sgt. Esquivez.

While the Sheriff’s Department is not calling him a suspect, detectives are trying to find the man to interview him.

“We don’t have a positive identification on him yet. We don’t know who he is. They don’t have any charges against him yet. I’m not saying that it can’t go there but right now based on video and other people who were there, witnesses, he’s not wanted for anything. They just want to talk to him and they want to get his side of the story.”