Woman attacks officer with ax, cutting his arm

A woman attacked a police officer with an ax through the open window of his patrol vehicle Monday morning in Escondido, inflicting a minor injury to his left arm, police said.

Doctors at Palomar Medical Center treated and released the officer within a few hours, police spokesman Lt. Bode Berreth said. Officers arrested the 28-year-old woman suspected in the attack after a brief standoff in a nearby vacant lot.

The incident began just before 9 a.m., when a 911 caller reported a woman was hacking at the sidewalk on the corner of Valley Parkway and Hickory Street with a short-handle ax, Berreth said in a news release. A few minutes later, an officer arrived in the area and spotted the woman on North Grape Street just off Valley Parkway.

According to police, the woman

into the street as the officer pulled up. He tried to drive away, but she swung the ax through his open window, striking his left arm twice, Berreth said.

The ax left a roughly two-inch cut that was “not super deep,” Berreth told the Union-Tribune. The officer was later treated at Palomar Medical Center and “released within a few hours.”

After the attack, the woman ran nearby to the old Palomar Medical Center site, which is vacant amid demolition, and hid inside a utility building, Berreth said. Just after 10 a.m., she surrendered.

Police identified the woman as a 28-year-old Escondido resident and said she was booked into the Vista Detention Facility on suspicion of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.

Anyone with more information about the attack, including any potential witnesses, were asked to call Escondido police at (760) 8394722, or Detective Michelle Mayfield at (760) 839-4926.

alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com