SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT RECORDS ANOTHER IN-CUSTODY DEATH — WOMAN, 40

A 40-year-old woman in the Sheriff’s Department’s custody died early Saturday at a hospital, officials said, adding to the deadliest spate of in-custody fatalities in decades.

Erica Wahlberg began showing signs of medical distress on Wednesday — the day after she was arrested on a drug warrant — while being housed at the Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility in Santee, officials said. She was sent to a local hospital for treatment where she died days later.

“Every death is a tragedy and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department is sympathetic to Miss Wahlberg’s family and loved ones,” the department said in a statement. “A Sheriff ’s Family Liaison Officer has been assigned and the family has been notified of her passing.”

Homicide detectives are investigating Wahlberg’s death, as is typical for all incustody deaths regardless of whether they are suspicious in nature.

The Medical Examiner’s Office has been notified of the death, as has the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB), officials said.

At least 10 other people have died in the Sheriff ’s Department’s custody this year.

Deaths have plagued San Diego County’s jails for more than a decade, according to a six-month investigation published by the Union-tribune in 2019, which found San Diego County had the highest jail-mortality rate among California’s largest counties. Overall, more than 150 men and women have died in Sheriff’s Department custody since 2009, records show.

The death rate climbed even higher last year, with a total of 18 deaths in 2021, the deadliest year in San Diego County since at least 1999.

A California state audit released Feb. 3 said jail practices and conditions in San Diego County were so unsafe that new legislation was needed to reform the system. Department officials say they have hired additional staff and made several policy changes to help prevent inmates from dying in custody.

wendy.fry@sduniontribune.com

Arrest in shooting that wounded two women

A 25-year-old man was arrested Friday night on suspicion of shooting and injuring two bystanders visiting from out of town just over a week ago in the Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego police said.

The shooting happened just after 10:30 p.m. on June 24 during a fight that broke out between two groups of people near Fifth Avenue and F Street, police said.

Someone opened fire on one of the groups, and two women who were not part of the argument were shot. Police said Saturday that both women continue to recover from their injuries.

Detectives later identified Johnza Watson as the suspected shooter.

Officers detained Watson while investigating a separate assault reported Friday on Fifth Avenue near Market Street — just two blocks from the shooting on the 24th.

Police said five suspects were located in that case, and Watson was one of them.

Watson faces eight charges in connection with both assaults, including attempted murder and assault with a firearm, jail records show.

Anyone with information about either case was asked to call detectives or Crime Stoppers anonymously at (888) 580-8477.

wendy.fry@sduniontribune.com

Fire seriously damages urgent care in Santee

A two-alarm fire seriously damaged a Concentra Urgent Care commercial building in Santee on Saturday afternoon, officials said.

Heartland and Santee firefighters arrived around 2 p.m. and found heavy smoke coming from the front of the building on the corner of Prospect Avenue and Cuyamaca

Street.

“We were concerned there could be people inside, but we shortly found out that they’re closed today,” Santee fire Battalion Chief Aaron Bagley told Onscene TV.

Witnesses told investigators one man walked up to the building and broke a window to see if anyone was inside, Bagley said.

Little is known about what may have caused the blaze, which charred the inside of the building.

No injuries were reported, and a damage estimate was not immediately available.

wendy.fry@sduniontribune.com

Suspect, victim injured in trolley stop stabbing

One man stabbed another man Friday morning at a Lemon Grove trolley station, with the incident resulting in both men being injured and ending up at different trolley stops, authorities said.

The stabbing occurred a little before 11 a.m. at the Massachusetts Avenue station in Lemon Grove, according to San Diego County sheriff ’s Sgt. Michael Power.

As deputies from the sheriff ’s Lemon Grove substation responded to that trolley stop and helped attend to a wounded man, they learned a second injured person had shown up at the Encanto/62nd Street trolley station, Power said. That station, in San Diego, is the next one to the west of the Massachusetts Avenue station, along the Metropolitan Transit System’s orange line that runs between El Cajon and downtown San Diego.

Sheriff’s investigators later determined the stabbing occurred at the Lemon Grove station and believe the injured person who stayed there, a 26-year-old man who sustained minor cuts on his hands and one arm, was the perpetrator, Power said. Deputies arrested him after he was treated for his injuries at a hospital.

The man who ended up at the Encanto station was the victim of the attack and sustained a stab wound to his upper body, Power said. Paramedics took him to a hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery.

Power did not release the victim’s name or age, but said he was expected to survive. The suspect’s injuries were believed to be self-inflicted.

“It appears the suspect injured himself during the struggle,” Power said. “The cuts on his hands (were) consistent with the weapon slipping in his grasp, which is not uncommon in stabbing attacks.”

Sheriff’s officials did not disclose a motive for the assault. An MTS spokesperson referred questions about the incident to law enforcement, writing in an email that “MTS is fully cooperating with their response.”

Jail records showed the suspect was booked Friday afternoon into the downtown San Diego Central Jail on suspicion of three felonies, including assault with a deadly weapon and committing a felony while out of jail on bail.

Anyone who may have witnessed the stabbing or its aftermath was asked to call the Sheriff’s Department’s non-emergency line at (858) 565-5200.