Firefighter sustains minor injuries during home blaze
SAN DIEGO
A firefighter was sent to a hospital with minor injuries Friday morning after fire erupted at a Mountain View home.
The blaze was reported shortly after 3:30 a.m. at a single-story home on Ocean View Boulevard near San Miguel Avenue, west of Interstate 805, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
The f lames damaged a bedroom, the living room and caused smoke damage to the rest of the house, Fox5 reported. Flames also spread to a grassy area in the backyard, but crews quickly extinguished that fire.
One firefighter was taken to a hospital for treatment of a minor injury, according to the news station.
The cause of the fire was under investigation.
Man to face trial on murder charge in attack with wrench
SAN DIEGO
A man who allegedly struck another man in the head with a wrench outside a 7-Eleven in the Rolando neighborhood of San Diego, resulting in his death five days later, was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on murder and assault charges.
John Cowan Patch, 27, is accused in the Nov. 5, 2019, attack on George Almestar, 30, who was struck around 4:20 a.m. in the parking lot of the store near the intersection of El Cajon and Rolando boulevards.
Almestar was admitted to a hospital in critical condition, police said, and died Nov. 10.
According to testimony during Patch’s preliminary hearing in San Diego Superior Court, Patch was identified as the suspect through surveillance footage and witnesses.
Police found and arrested him less than a mile away from the 7Eleven about 11 hours later.
Patch’s attorney, Tee Ho, argued Wednesday that Patch struck Almestar in self-defense, alleging the victim advanced toward him before being struck.
In holding Patch to answer to the charges, Superior Court Judge Francis Devaney said Almestar was not carrying a weapon and it did not appear to him that the victim raised his hands to attack Patch in any way that would justify deadly use of force.
Patch is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.