Background: The home in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, where the victim was attacked (KOCO/ YouTube). Inset: Ronaldo Zavala (Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office).
A man in Oklahoma is accused of stabbing his former co-worker more than a dozen times outside her home because he was "obsessed" with her.
Ronaldo Zavala, 24, has been charged with aggravated assault and battery, assault and battery while masked or disguised, and domestic assault and battery with a deadly weapon, Pottawatomie County jail records show. The incident unfolded on Saturday.
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At about 1 a.m., an 18-year-old woman was walking into her home, eating a burger, when she stopped on her front porch. Someone in a mask was coming up behind her and proceeded to stab her in the neck and the wrist, the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office said.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," the masked man said as he stabbed the woman 14 times, Captain Jared Strand with the sheriff's office told Oklahoma City's CBS affiliate KWTV. The victim's mother and brother woke up to screams, with the latter rushing to his sister's defense.
The brother was stabbed as he "attempted to intervene," authorities said, but his efforts appeared to scare the suspect off. The masked figure drove away before deputies arrived at the rural home.
Once investigators did arrive and learned the circumstances of the violent assault, they developed a suspect: Zavala. They said evidence collected at the scene led them to him.
"He was just obsessed with this female and she had no interest whatsoever, and it just drove him to the brink of committing this crime," Strand told regional ABC affiliate KOCO. "He went so far as to sending unsolicited DoorDash orders, different gifts and things like that that were not wanted."
Zavala and the victim had worked together at an area movie theater, authorities said, until she made a complaint about him for his "obsessive" behavior and he was fired. He proceeded to stalk the woman, and on the night of the attack, he allegedly hid as he waited for her to walk to her door.
The woman's brother — who suffered minor injuries as he helped his sister — is credited with saving her life. She was listed as being in critical but stable condition when authorities announced Zavala's arrest on Saturday.