Video shows screaming woman fleeing attacker before being stabbed during violent Lake Forest rampage; suspect IDed
04/18/2019 7:18 am PDT
via KTLA:
LAKE FOREST, Calif. -- (KTLA) -- Harrowing surveillance video released Wednesday captured a woman screaming for her life while running from a man with a knife moments before she was repeatedly stabbed during a violent rampage in Lake Forest.
The incident was part of a series of chaotic events that began around 5 p.m. Tuesday when a man -- identified as 25-year-old James Carlos Melendrez of Anaheim -- became involved in a physical altercation near the Salvation Army on Rockfield Boulevard, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
Melendrez fled to a nearby apartment on Ridge Route Drive, where he entered a unit occupied by two people, one of whom chased him out, authorities said.
The suspect then allegedly broke into the stabbing victim's home on Danby Avenue by smashing a back window, a sheriff's news release stated.
Marylou Villalobos Palos, 42, was inside the house with her two teenage daughters at the time. She ran from the residence down Danby in an effort to lure the suspect out of the home and away from the girls.
Evelyn Palos, the victim's 15-year-old daughter, said it was like “something out of a horror movie.”
“I was in the bathroom, and my sister was in her room," she told KTLA. "That's just when I heard glass fall, and (Melendrez) went to the kitchen and grabbed a knife.”
The other girl, 13-year-old Elizabeth Palos, said she sprang from her bed and ran to see what happened.