UPDATE: Victim Identified, Person Of Interest Named In Red Hawk Casino Stabbing

PLACERVILLE (CBS13) – A young man was fatally stabbed in the parking garage at Red Hawk Casino Wednesday night.

The victim was identified as Gene Mcarn, 19, of Rescue.

The El Dorado County Sheriff's Department said Mcarn was stabbed at around 10:30 p.m. on the sixth floor of the garage. He was driven by friends to Marshall Hospital in Placerville where he was pronounced dead.

Deputies have identified Estaphen Juarez as a person of interest in the stabbing.

CBS13 reached Mcarn's grieving stepmother by phone in Fresno just hours after she learned of his death.

"My heart is broken for everybody in the family, his brothers and sisters and myself," Kara Mcarn said. "Gene had a really big heart."

Deputies say the attack was in the casino parking structure after an altercation that may have started inside the casino. Investigators are using casino surveillance cameras to piece together what happened

Thanksgiving Day visitors to the casino were surprised to hear about the violent attack the night before.

"Most the time you come to a place like this you bring your friends and family, don't think a second about it," Dustin Smith said. "But you hear unfortunate news like a stabbing and it makes you think twice."

The 19-year-old Mcarn attended El Dorado and Ponderosa high schools. He played football.

He was attending Sacramento State and majoring in films and motion pictures, according to his Linkedin page. His family said he was not currently enrolled.

"Everybody just needs to know that it doesn't matter what the situation was, no one ever deserves to be hurt," his stepmother said.