Sacramento County employee honks horn and helps stop knife attack in Elk Grove, police say

Rosalio Ahumada
·2 min read
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A Sacramento County employee intervened Tuesday morning and stopped an attack in Elk Grove, where a person walking their dog was knocked to the ground by an assailant with a knife, police said.

The attack occurred shortly before 8 a.m. in the 9200 block of Malheur Way, police said, in a residential neighborhood just south of Laguna Boulevard and west of Franklin Boulevard.

The victim was walking their dog when the suspect, who the victim did not know, knocked the victim down, got on top of the victim and pulled out a knife, the Elk Grove Police Department announced Thursday afternoon in a Facebook post.

Police said an employee driving a Sacramento County vehicle saw the attack and intervened by honking the horn, which caused the assailant to flee without further harming the victim. Detectives arrived at the scene and found security camera video footage of the suspect and the attack.

Detectives later identified the attack suspect as a 22-year-old man, who was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and remained in custody Thursday at the Sacramento County Main Jail. He was booked Tuesday evening at the jail and was being held without bail. Jail records showed that his arraignment hearing had not yet been scheduled as of Thursday afternoon.

Police said the investigators initially believed the attack suspect was the alleged assailant’s 20-year-old brother, who was wanted by police for an arrest warrant for a battery on a police officer charge. The younger brother also had a similar physical description.

Officers and detectives detained both brothers at an apartment, where the investigators found evidence that linked the older brother to the attack, police said.

Investigators determined the younger brother was not involved in the attack, but police arrested him on the warrant. He was released from the jail later on Tuesday, authorities said.

The Police Department thanked the county employee who honked the horn to stop the attack and commended the investigators for their work which led to an arrest hours after the attack.