Kicked in the face and stabbed twice in the back, a man staggered down Tuna Canyon Road to Pacific Coast Highway, after being attacked by an unknown suspect on Saturday, according to a sheriff’s report.
A motorist insisting that a man needed help on the highway flagged down sheriff’s deputies. When they found the victim, he was barely able to speak and losing consciousness. His coat was soaked with blood. Paramedics were called and the victim was airlifted to UCLA Medical Center.
Three men had been driving down Tuna Canyon Road when they saw a man standing in the middle of the road, frantically waving his arms and calling out, “I need your cell phone. My friend has been stabbed.” He then pointed to another man standing on the side of the road, and said, “He did it!” A third man, the victim, was apparently trying to hide from the suspect in the bushes.
Thinking it was a scam and they were about to be robbed, the men in the car drove away and contacted the Sheriff’s Department. By the time sheriff’s deputies arrived at the crime scene and after attending to the victim, the suspect had fled.
The victim later told deputies that he and his friend had been sitting on a rock near Tuna Canyon Road, about one-third of a mile up from PCH, when suddenly a man appeared and said, “You have to leave.”
The victim asked the man what was going on. The suspect kicked him twice in the face and stabbed him twice with a 10-inch (approximately) fixed-blade knife. As the suspect walked away along the creek, the victim told his friend to go for help. The victim then walked down to the highway.
A nurse at UCLA said that his injuries were serious and that both knife wounds punctured his right lung. He was listed in stable condition.
The victim told deputies that he’s seen the suspect before, walking on Tuna Canyon Road, and that he’s probably a transient who sets up camp next to a fire road in the area.