A transient suspected of stabbing an acquaintance on a Murrieta street was identified and arrested after a three-day search, authorities said Friday.
Eric Daniel Hill, 38, was taken into custody without incident Thursday, booked into the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.
Bail information was not immediately available.
The attack happened shortly before 8 p.m. Monday in the area of Whitewood Road and Rockcrest Drive, according to the Murrieta Police Department.
Capt. Jeremy Durrant said that the victim, identified only as a 44-year-old homeless man, was assaulted during a dispute with Hill, the nature of which wasn’t disclosed. Durrant said the two men reside in the same Temecula Valley transient encampment.
The victim hopped a fence and ran to a house on nearby Old Carriage Road for help, telling the homeowner that he had been stabbed and exhibiting a bloody wound on his shoulder, according to Durrant.
The homeowner called 911, and patrol officers arrived within minutes, obtaining a description of the suspect and initiating a street-by-street search, utilizing a K9 unit and requesting assistance from a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department helicopter crew, the captain said.
“Despite these efforts, officers were unable to locate a suspect,” he said. “Additional evidence was located on Whitewood and collected as part of the ongoing investigation.”
The victim was taken to a regional trauma center for treatment of the non-life-threatening wound, from which he is still recovering.
Durrant said detectives soon identified Hill as the alleged assailant. They enlisted assistance from sheriff’s deputies, who located and arrested the suspect Thursday afternoon along Winchester Road. He was turned over to Murrieta police investigators, who questioned him, then booked him into jail.