Authorities Monday were trying to figure out what happened and why when a 24-year-old transient allegedly rode a bicycle up to a skateboarding woman – an old acquaintance – and stabbed her numerous times.
The suspect remained in custody while the investigation continued into the attack in an unincorporated area just north of Covina.
The attack at the Oak Knoll Alternative School at Cienega and Bonnie Cove avenues happened last week, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The 23-year-old victim was skateboarding with friends when she was approached by suspect Peter William Cooley, who rode up to her on a bicycle “and stabbed her multiple times,” Lt. Elisabeth Sachs of the sheriff’s San Dimas Station said.
The woman, whose name was withheld, told deputies she recognized Cooley as someone she knew a long time ago, the lieutenant said.
Cooley didn’t say a word before he allegedly stabbed the woman four or five times in the body and an arm, another sheriff’s lieutenant told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. He then abandoned the bicycle and ran off, the lieutenant said.
The woman was taken to a hospital, where she displayed stable vital signs, Sachs said.
Deputies used bloodhounds in the search for Cooley, but he was not found, she said.
Cooley was taken into custody by Los Angeles police on Saturday in connection with an attempted kidnapping and it was subsequently learned he was wanted in the stabbing case, said Sgt. Nicole Davis, also of the San Dimas Station.
Cooley was being held without bail in Los Angeles Police Department custody, according to sheriff’s online inmate records.
He would likely face a charge of assault with a deadly weapon when he is arraigned, Davis said.