Police investigate early morning stabbing

Clear Lake police are investigating a stabbing which has left a Minnesota man in critical condition.

At approximately 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning, Dec. 9, the Clear Lake Police Department was contacted by the Mason City Police Department from the Mercy Hospital Emergency Room.  They reported a male subject had been admitted to the hospital with a knife wound that resulted from an assault that occurred 

a short time earlier at the Kum & Go Convenience Store located at 2005 Highway 18 E., Clear Lake. 

The victim, identified as 24-year-old Brendan Douglas Prado, of Brooklyn Park, Minn., was in critical condition and was being taken into surgery.

A subsequent investigation by the CLPD showed that Prado had been a passenger in a car with several other people who had stopped at the Kum & Go earlier in the morning. 

According to a news release, police say a couple of the people from the vehicle Prado was riding in had gone into the convenience center to make a purchase when a second vehicle, occupied by several individuals, pulled into the Pilot Truck Stop just east of the Kum & Go.  The report states that several individuals got out of the vehicle and approached the vehicle Prado was riding in and a verbal altercation began between the two groups.  Soon the altercation turned physical, with some pushing and punching. 

After the altercation stopped, the second group of people went back to their vehicle at the Pilot Truck stop and left. 

Prado got back into his vehicle and felt pain in his torso and noticed he was bleeding profusely. His friends drove him to the Mercy Hospital Emergency Room for treatment.

Clear Lake Police Chief Greg Peterson said Tuesday his department is still investigating the incident.  They are still interviewing witnesses and waiting for video footage from the Kum & Go Convenience Store and the Pilot Truck Stop. 

Prado remained in critical care at Mercy Hospital at the time of the release Monday.