A man was taken into custody in connection with the fatal stabbing of a woman and dog in San Dimas Thursday, authorities said.
The incident was reported about 1:35 p.m. in the 1400 block of Renwick Road, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release. Deputies responded to Lone Hill Park regarding a call about an assault with a deadly weapon and a woman screaming.
They arrived to find a woman in her 60s lying unresponsive in the street with what appeared to be multiple stab wounds, the department said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
A dog that was lying next to her was also stabbed and killed, officials told KTLA.
Aerial video showed the woman’s body in front of a home in a residential area near the park, and next to what appeared to be the lifeless dog.
Investigators say another person targeted by the same man before the woman and dog were attacked had tried to stop the killing and knocked the assailant unconscious.
A man in his 30s had parked his truck and was walking through the park toward a public restroom when he saw a man walking toward him wielding a knife, the Sheriff’s Department said.
The victim turned and ran away from the assailant, who started to chase him. But then the attacker changed his focus to the woman walking her dog, investigators said.
The suspect, identified only as a 23-year-old Latino man, then grabbed the woman’s dog by the leash and yanked it free from her grasp. He stabbed the dog and then the woman, officials said.
During the attack, the male victim was able to strike the suspect in the head with a rock, the department said. The suspect was knocked unconscious.
Responding deputies took the suspect into custody and transported him to a local hospital, where he was being evaluated for head injuries Thursday evening. After receiving medical clearance, he will be booked on suspicion of murder, the department said.
A knife was recovered at the scene, deputies said.
The male victim was identified to KTLA at the scene as 31-year-old Joe Cohen by his father-in-law, Tony Page.
Page says Cohen had just stopped at the park to use the restroom when he spotted the man with the knife. Cohen ran back into his vehicle and the suspect continued on to stab the woman and her dog, Page said.
“Joe was sitting in his vehicle, watching this horrific thing take place,” Page said. After the woman fell to the ground, Cohen got out of his car and grabbed a rock. “He threw it, hit the suspect in the face, knocked him out and he was able to basically subdue and hold the suspect until authorities arrived.”
Authorities did not release a motive or any further details about the victims and the suspect.
Page called his son-in-law a hero.
“That guy was out to just kill anybody and everybody,” he said. “God knows what he would’ve did, how many more people he would’ve taken.”