Officer Making Arrest Stabbed

A Berkeley policeman in civilian clothes was critically injured today when a man he was trying to arrest stabbed him four times at the Alameda County Courthouse, Berkeley police reported.

Police spokesman Marc Garcia said Larry Lindenau, head of the Berkeley department’s sex crimes unit, was at the courthouse at 9 a.m. looking for James Arthur Lea, 43, of Berkeley, who was at the courthouse on an unrelated case. Garcia said when Lindenau tried to arrest Lea outside the courtroom on the second floor he was stabbed four times in the back. He said Lea ran several blocks but was captured near the Oakland Public Library.