13-Year-Old Attacked With Needle-Like Object in Palmdale

A 13-year-old boy was stabbed with a needle or syringe in the front yard of his home in Palmdale Saturday, authorities said.

The attack took place around midnight Saturday morning in the 38500 block of Lemsford Avenue, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Lancaster Station.

When crews arrived on scene, they found a 13-year-old boy who said he had been stabbed with a needle or syringe, the LASD said. Paramedics observed a prick mark on the boy's stomach, authorities said.

With his parents' permission, the boy told NBCLA about the terrifying moment.

Alek Gonzales, the 13-year-old boy, says he went outside to look for change he thought he had dropped in the front yard when a stranger who was passing by came after him.

The boy's family just arrived home from an event and Alek thought he may have dropped some change on the way in, the boy said. While looking for his change, Alek noticed a man he did not recognize.

"I turned back around to go back inside the house, and he turned me around and poked me with something," Alek says.

The man is believed to have poked the boy in the stomach, with either a needle or syringe, according to the LASD.

Alek’s parents and sister immediately called 911.

"He was crying a lot and there was a hole or a poke with blood coming out," Kayleen Gonzales, the victim's sister, said.

Sheriff's deputies arrived minutes later and scoured the area for the man, but he was nowhere to be found.

"[It was a] very scary moment, obviously unprovoked, unsolicited, unknown to the victim," said Lt. Joshua Barton of the Los Angles County Sheriff's Department Palmdale Station.

Scared and shaken, 13-year-old Alek Gonzales was loaded into the back of an ambulance and taken to the hospital, where he spent about three hours.

There was no trace of drugs on the object that poked him, and the wound wasn't very deep. But authorities want to find out who the man is and why he attacked the teenager.

And after the terrifying moment at his own home, Alek says hopes his attacker is caught, too.