ECHO PARK — Police are searching for three suspects tonight in connection with the stabbing of a man on Sunset Boulevard as the street was busy with crowds attending the Echo Park Rising music festival.

The man was stabbed during an altercation with three suspects on Sunset Boulevard west of Laveta Terrace after 11 p.m., according to police and witnesses at the scene.

The man and his girlfriend were walking on the sidewalk when one of the three suspects who were headed in the opposite direction punched the victim in the jaw, according to a witness who recognized the couple as customers at the shop where he works. The victim then swung his skateboard at the three men before he was stabbed, falling to the ground as his girlfriend screamed. “He got shanked and fell to the floor,” said the witness, who did not want to be identified.

He later saw the three men flee north on Echo Park Avenue. He did not recognize the suspects and did not know if the couple was in the area for festival shows or events.

The condition of the victim, who was transported from the scene in an ambulance, was unknown. But the witness said he appeared to have been stabbed in the stomach area and also may have sustained a head injury.

Police were trying to keep the mostly young festival goers at bay as they sealed off the area with crime tape and closed a lane of traffic.

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Update: The victim died from his injuries, police said on Saturday.

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