Man Stabbing Girlfriend Is Shot by Officers

A man stabbing his girlfriend with a screwdriver was shot by officers and critically wounded, police said Wednesday.

Officers arrived at a Boyle Heights apartment on a domestic violence call Tuesday night and broke in after a child in the window told them an attacker was inside and a woman screamed, Los Angeles Police Sgt. John Pasquariello said.

The woman had called police 90 minutes earlier to say her boyfriend was ransacking the apartment, the sergeant said. The boyfriend wasn’t there when police came and they left after taking a report.

When they returned they found Cristobal Garcia, 27, armed with a screwdriver, holding the woman by the neck, Pasquariello said.

“The officers ordered the suspect to drop the screwdriver but instead he began stabbing the victim,” he said.

Garcia refused orders to drop the screwdriver and one of the officers shot him in the chest, Pasquariello said.

Despite the wound, Garcia stabbed at the woman again with an 8-inch screwdriver, and the second officer shot him in the chest, the sergeant said. Garcia then released the woman.

He was hospitalized in critical condition at County-USC Medical Center.

The victim, whose name was withheld, didn’t require hospitalization, the sergeant said.