Crossbow Victim Tells of Attack

A man who was shot in the head earlier this month with a crossbow bolt Tuesday calmly described waking up and realizing he had been injured.

“I woke up with this incredible explosion in my head . . . it felt like my brain exploded--I thought I had an aneurysm,” said 29-year-old Arthur Ekvall.

Ekvall testified at a preliminary hearing for Jesse Solis, his 25-year-old former lover who is accused of attempted murder in the bizarre June 8 attack.

Municipal Court Judge E. Mac Amos Jr. ordered Solis to stand trial for attempted “willful and premeditated first-degree murder” and auto theft. Solis remains in custody in lieu of $250,000 bail and will be arraigned in Superior Court on July 8.

Ekvall appeared fully recovered from his injuries. The target bolt--the archery term for an arrow fired from a crossbow--entered his head at the base of his skull, passed through his head and protruded just above his left eyebrow.

Ekvall testified about his 15-month relationship with Solis, which included about seven months of cohabitation last year. After the two parted ways at the beginning of the year, he said, Solis “followed me around” and committed acts of assault, burglary, vandalism and harassment.

In the weeks before the crossbow incident, Ekvall testified that he was basically living in his truck, but was planning to move into a house the day he was shot. Two days before the attack, Solis appeared at Ekvall’s job as a parking lot attendant in Pacific Beach and asked for one last weekend together.

After he was awakened by the intense pain, Ekvall looked up to see Solis attempting to reload the crossbow and he shouted, “Oh my God, you shot me in the head,” he testified.

Solis, with “a black look in his eyes,” looked up and said, ‘That’s for everything you did to me,” Ekvall said.

Ekvall, with the bolt jutting out his head, got out of bed and tried to gain control of the weapon. Though Solis did not resist, Ekvall feared for his life, he said.

“I said, ‘Do you want to go to jail?’ He stops in his tracks and says let me take you to the emergency room,” Ekvall testified.

But Ekvall said he ran out of the apartment and took refuge with the manager of the building, who called 911.

After authorities arrived, Ekvall was taken to the hospital, where he remembers nearly everything until doctors begin to remove the bolt.

“The first thing they did was cut off the back of the arrow with bolt cutters so they could lay me down on the table,” he said.