Inset: Manuel Arturo Alvarez (Murrieta Police Department). Background: A block of Old Spring Road in Murrieta, California (Google Maps).
A man is accused of sneaking into a California couple's home, stabbing a man with a knife and stabbing his wife in the head with a screwdriver.
Manual Alvarez, 36, has been charged with homicide and attempted homicide, the Murrieta Police Department announced in a press release. The identities of the victims have not been released.
It was early on Wednesday, not quite 8:30 a.m., when an "unknown person" entered a woman's home on Old Spring Road in Murrieta, California, and attacked both her and her 70-year-old husband. She had been "stabbed in the head with a screwdriver" while her husband had been stabbed with a knife.
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The woman called 911, telling authorities she believed her husband was dead and that the suspect ran out of the home through the back door. She did not recognize the man but described him as having a beard and mustache, wearing a black shirt and pants, and being barefoot, police said.
Officers arrived and gave medical attention to the woman. They also confirmed that her husband was dead and organized a search for the suspect. Just before 9 a.m., authorities believe they found him.
A man was in a ravine behind a nearby home on Wild Flower Drive, but he continued to hide even as officers gave him commands, the police department said. With the help of a K-9, the suspect — Alvarez — was taken into custody.
The woman victim was transported to a hospital and, as of Wednesday, was listed as in stable condition. Alvarez was treated at a hospital for injuries he suffered from the K-9, and then he was booked into the Cois Byrd Detention Center.
Neighbors were shocked by the violence that occurred in their neighborhood, which they described as quiet.
"This is random. This is just a house right down the street, in a new neighborhood that we moved in, like it can happen to anybody," neighbor Jamel King told Los Angeles-based ABC affiliate KABC.
"I take my kids to school, its calm and then I get back and there's a helicopter circling around, there's just cops lined up all the way coming in and flying out," another resident, Heather King, added.
Tyler Hamilton, another local resident, said: "It was scary thinking back that we were just feet away from some guy on the run with a knife. In this area nothing like this ever happens over here."
According to the local outlet, as of Friday, Alvarez had not been medically cleared to appear in court. Detectives believe he entered the home through an unlocked door and that it was a random attack.
