East County Stabbing Spree: Trial To Begin For Accused

EL CAJON, CA – Jury selection is scheduled to get underway Tuesday at the trial of a man charged with a pair of stabbing attacks that seriously wounded two women in El Cajon and unincorporated La Mesa.

Patrick Douglas, 52, faces 97 years to life if convicted of the attempted murders of the victims, who were targeted for unknown reasons in the early morning hours of Nov 7, 2017. Douglas, who's being held in lieu of $5 million bail, is also charged with assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer and evading arrest.

After allegedly attacking the victims, Douglas led authorities on a high-speed car chase into Dulzura, where he abandoned his car and made a failed attempt to escape on foot into rugged back-country terrain.

The first of the two assaults was reported shortly before 3 a.m. in a commercial area about a mile west of Granite Hills High School, according to the El Cajon Police Department.

Patrol officers found the victim in a parking lot at a strip mall in the 300 block of North Second Street, ECPD Lt. Eric Taylor said. A witness reported seeing the bloodied woman emerge from a Mercedes-Benz sedan that was then driven out of the area.

Paramedics took the victim to a trauma center, where she underwent emergency surgery for upper-body wounds.

A few minutes after the first assault was reported, authorities got a 911 call about an attack on a Frito-Lay delivery driver outside a 7-Eleven store in the 4600 block of Avocado Boulevard in the Calavo Gardens neighborhood, near Mount Helix.

That victim stumbled into the convenience store and collapsed onto the floor. Paramedics took her to a hospital, where she was admitted for treatment of serious, but non-life-threatening stab wounds.

Deputies soon spotted a man -- later identified as Douglas -- matching witness descriptions of the assailant -- behind the wheel of a Mercedes- Benz near the site of the second crime, sheriff's Lt. Tom Seiver said.

The suspect sped off when the patrol personnel approached, prompting a pursuit over surface streets and along state Route 94 into Spring Valley. There, the fleeing motorist wound up cornered in a cul-de-sac, at which point he put his hands out the driver's side window as if surrendering.

As deputies drew near to him, however, the man accelerated toward them, narrowly missing one, according to Seiver. The suspect then drove off once again, heading east through Rancho San Diego at speeds exceeding 100 mph.

In the Jamul area, one of the pursuing deputies lost control of his cruiser and crashed it, suffering minor injuries. When the lawman's colleagues stopped to assist him, the suspect got away, Seiver said.

Later in the morning, authorities found the Mercedes damaged and abandoned on Campo Road, a short distance from Dulzura Vineyard. Deputies then began searching the remote locale with help from U.S. Border Patrol agents and eventually detained Douglas in a remote, brushy area off Freezer Road.

• PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Suspect Named In East County Stabbing Spree

• ALSO SEE: Woman's Suspected Murder: Investigation Underway

--City News Service