One Dead, Two Wounded in Stabbing

A triple stabbing has left one woman is dead, another woman wounded, and a Fresno police officer injured.

The attack was one of two assaults on Fresno police officers in a 14 hour period.

The second assault occurred around 7:30 Monday night. A man wanted for domestic violence was stopped by police. As officers tried to get the man out of his SUV, he threw the car into reverse, nearly knocking the officer to the ground.

The suspect sped off. Officers chased him and rammed his SUV on Jensen Avenue near Kerman. The suspect ran into an almond orchard to try and escape. He was Tasered several times and taken into custody.

The common thread between the two attacks is that the two suspects are serving their prison time in the community under Governor Jerry Brown’s prison realignment.

And both suspects are considered by the state to be non-violent.

But one of the men is now facing murder and attempted murder charges.

A Taser gun, a knife, and a bloody shirt.

It's a violent scene that left one woman dead, another woman in the hospital and a Fresno police officer wounded.

One witness heard the commotion.

“I just heard scuffling in the hall and it sounded like someone running back and forth,” said Kim, who lives near the victims.

Police say 25-year-old Michael Edward Crockell attacked two women who live across the alley from his apartment.

20-year-old Jennifer Gonzalez woke up to her roommate screaming.

“What she heard was her roommate yelling ‘Get him off me, help me, help me,” said Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer.

The roommate was stabbed 14 times.

Gonzalez tried to pull Crockell off of her roommate.

Then Gonzalez was stabbed - 15 times.

Officer Jonathan Linzey answered the 9-1-1 call for help from Gonzalez.

Investigators say Crockell ambushed officer Linzey.

“The suspect, prior, was hiding between the victim's apartment and another apartment. He suddenly appeared and began attacking him with his fist,” Dyer said.

The two fought for three to four minutes.

Linzey was stabbed three times, twice in the head and once in the arm.

He was treated at the hospital and will recover.

Gonzales is hospitalized.

Her roommate did not survive.

Crockell has a history of violence.

He was sentenced to prison last October. He was supposed to serve three years.

But he was released after six months time under the Governor's realignment.

A public safety coalition out of Sacramento is trying to get realignment modified to keep people like Crockell in prison. 

“To turn them loose without fear of incarceration at the state level, with a fraction of time served at the county level or with a GPS monitor on isn't working,” said Lynne Richard-Brown with Advocates for Public Safety.

Fresno police say nine out of the 39 murders this year in the city were committed by criminals serving their time in the community instead of state prison, under realignment.