Unprovoked Lake Perris stabbing leads to Temecula man’s arrest

A man was being held Tuesday in lieu of $1 million bail in connection with a stabbing at the Lake Perris State Recreation Area earlier in the day.

The stabbing occurred at 6:30 a.m. during an altercation in a parking lot in which Ivan Hernandez, 26, of Temecula, allegedly stabbed Cannon Merrylees of Murrieta, in an apparently unprovoked attack, the Press Enterprise reported.

Merrylees suffered stab wounds to his neck and chest and was treated at the scene, but declined transportation to the hospital.

After Merrylees gave state park police a description of the assailant, officers realized that the description matched a suspect they had arrested earlier that morning for being drunk in public in a picnic area, the newspaper reported.

Hernandez was later booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center on suspicion of attempted murder, according to jail records.

— City News Service