A 22-year-old man was hospitalized with several injuries, including multiple stab wounds that he received during an attack after leaving a Winton bar early Sunday morning.

The victim is expected to recover from his injuries, said Merced County Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Tom MacKenzie.

The attack occurred around 2 a.m. Sunday after the victim and a female friend had left the El Rincon Bar in the 6000 block of Winton Way. The pair had walked a few blocks to her car when they were approached by three men, MacKenzie said.

The men asked the victim where he was from and then started punching him in the face, MacKenzie said. The victim and the woman were able to get away and ran to a pay phone, where the victim called his mother to come pick him up.

When the victim’s mother arrived she found her son slumped over in a parking lot next to a post office.

“She took him home and figured he had too much to drink until she got his shirt off and saw puncture wounds on his stomach,” MacKenzie said.

The victim was taken to Emanuel Medical Center. He had several bruises to his face, a stab wound to his left rear hip, two apparent puncture wounds to his stomach and a gouge in the skin of his left calf.

Do to the victim’s intoxicated state, all he could remember about the suspects was that they were all males, in their 20s to 30s, two were Hispanic and one was African American.

To contact Sabra Stafford, e-mail sstafford@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2002.