Suspect in random San Diego-area stabbings arrested

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- (KSWB) -- A man suspected in three random stabbings was arrested Tuesday evening by Chula Vista police.Gerardo Bejar, 45, was arrested without incident around 6 p.m. after officers conducted a traffic stop in the 500 block of Orange Avenue. He was charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon and will be booked into county jail.

The latest in the series of non-fatal assaults, all believed to have been carried out by Bejar, occurred shortly after noon in the 300 block of K Street, according to police. The victim told investigators he was walking along the roadside when the assailant drove up in the opposite direction, pulled to an abrupt stop in the middle of the street and jumped out of his still-running vehicle, Lt. Fritz Reber said.

The attacker, who was wearing a black T-shirt and a dark baseball cap, grabbed the pedestrian from behind and knifed him once in the back before getting back into the car and speeding off.

The victim described the perpetrator as a thin, roughly 6-foot-tall white man with tattoos on his neck and one of his arms.

Police believe the same man also attacked a woman in a wheelchair in the 1600 block of Industrial Boulevard on the afternoon of Nov. 17 and jumped a man behind a Target store in the 1200 block of Broadway on the morning of Nov. 23.

The victims, each of whom suffered a single non-life-threatening stab wound to the back, told detectives they did not recognize the perpetrator. Surveillance cameras have captured images of the attacker's car, believed to be a 2010- to 2013-model gray or silver Ford Mustang with chrome rims and possibly a rear spoiler.