Pair flees from officials investigating reports of stabbing inside Hemet home

UPDATED: Monday, Apr. 23, 11 p.m., With PSI video from scene.

HEMET — A violent disturbance and reported stabbing at a Hemet residence led to a brief but tense standoff, foot chase, and eventual arrest of two people involved in the volatile incident. The investigation began earlier this evening on the 4100 block of Amber Ridge, northeast of Mustang Way and S. Cawston Avenue, and ended on separate, but connected nearby Whiterock and Cactus Tree Lanes, in Hemet.

City of Hemet Police and Fire personnel were dispatched to the home about 7 p.m., after receiving reports of an assault with a deadly weapon. 911 callers told City emergency dispatchers that a woman inside the home attacked a man with a large knife, described as a 9″ butcher’s knife, after the man pushed her down a set of stairs.

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It was not immediately known how or if the man and woman were related, but callers also reported that there were six children inside the home when the violence began and that the children were still inside the home.

Based on the circumstances of the call, while Hemet PD officers were still headed to the home, a Riverside County Sheriff K-9 Handler from the Sheriff’s Hemet Station offered assistance at which time he and several other deputies responded to the location to assist Hemet PD.

A Sheriff’s aviation crew in the department’s helicopter “Star-9” also responded to the scene and provided ground officers updates while circling overhead for the duration of the incident.

Witnesses later reported that when officials arrived at the home the woman who attacked the man with the knife came out of the home, only to run back in and slam the door.

While additional officers and deputies were still responding to the home, officials at the scene surrounded the property and shut down several streets to through traffic, setting up a perimeter around the neighborhood.

Officials then began ordering the subjects inside the home to come out. According to witnesses at the scene, all the home’s occupants but the alleged suspect, who has not yet been named, and an unidentified man obeyed officers and exited the residence.

While officers were still waiting for the last two subjects to exit the front of the home, the City’s dispatch center lit up with calls from area residents reporting that a woman and man had fled from the back of the home. Callers and Star-9 quickly updated that the pair was jumping fences and running northbound through back yards in an attempt to flee from the scene and evade capture.

Officials had already locked down and surrounded the entire neighborhood and quickly located the fleeing pair mid-block on Whiterock Lane, to the northwest of the original location.

The Sheriff’s K-9 and a Hemet PD officer converged on the fleeing woman and ordered the couple to the ground at gunpoint by, while other officers raced – in cars, and on foot – to the location.

Although the fleeing woman complied with officials, the man ditched his apprehended friend and continued fleeing, running south toward Cactus Tree Lane. He was also eventually detained at gunpoint.

Once handcuffed, both were placed into patrol vehicles while officials interviewed the witnesses and investigated the reported stabbing and violence that preceded it.

Official radio traffic at the time indicated that at some point after being placed in a patrol vehicle the woman became violent and began kicking out the windows of the car.

While trying to calm and control the woman, officers radioed that the suspect began to get combative and physical with them. Officers then reported the woman was trying to bite them and was aggressively resisting their efforts to get her back into the vehicle. Despite her resistance, officers managed to get her – safe and uninsured – back into the patrol car.

After their apprehension, the man and woman were transported to Hemet PD for further investigation.

No information was available regarding the victim who was reportedly attacked with the knife, but after he was evaluated and treated at the scene by paramedics, he reportedly declined to be transported to hospital for further treatment.

Once things had calmed down on the three streets where the incident happened a woman was seen thanking, shaking hands with, and hugging several of the involved officers.

Another person, 53-year-old, “long-time valley resident” Shawn Jackson, was spotted offering several officers cold bottles of water as well as his thanks for bringing the potentially deadly incident to a peaceful resolution.

“These officers go out there day and night, stalking those who stalk our streets, protecting us from those animals who would do us harm,” Jackson later said in an email response.

“They deserve a lot more than a handshake and a cold drink,” Jackson explained. “They deserve our utmost respect.”

No officials were reportedly injured during the incident or apprehension.

Hemet PD’s investigation is ongoing and they have not yet released any information or details regarding this incident and arrest. As of this report neither had been booked into Riverside County Jail, so no information was available yet regarding the arrest or what charges the pair might be facing.

This is a developing story that will be updated as new information becomes available.

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Timothy Franzese/Public Safety Incidents video

 

Contact the writer: [email protected]

Trevor Montgomery, 46, recently moved to Shasta County from Riverside County and runs Riverside County News Source and Shasta County News Source. Additionally, he writes for Riverside County based newspapers Valley News, The Valley Chronicle and Anza Valley Outlook as well as Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County.

Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg, breaking his back and suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries in an off-duty accident.

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations, including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center and Lake Elsinore Station, along with other locations.