Two Women Are Attacked in Anaheim

Two women were brutally attacked in separate apartments at an Anaheim building early Saturday morning, with the assailant then setting the dwellings on fire, authorities said.

Firefighters discovered the women when responding about 1:05 a.m. to a 911 call that reported a fire in one of the apartments of the fourplex in the 100 block of North East Street, said Anaheim Police Sgt. Rick Martinez.

“Police are considering this an attempted-homicide investigation,” Martinez said.

When firefighters arrived, they entered the apartment and found the first woman suffering from “traumatic injuries.”

While battling the blaze in the first apartment, firefighters noticed that an apartment unit two doors down in the same building also was on fire, Martinez said.

Firefighters entered that apartment and found the second victim suffering from wounds received in a brutal attack, Martinez said.

Police would not divulge details about the nature of the injuries.

The two women were treated at the scene and then transported to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where they were in critical condition Saturday night and breathing with the help of ventilators, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

One of the women, in her 20s, is a traffic control assistant who has worked as a civilian employee of the Anaheim Police Department for the last year, according to Martinez.

Bloodhounds from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department were brought to the scene to seek the cause of the fires and clues that might lead investigators to a suspect, Martinez said.

In the aftermath of the fire, the building’s yard contained a burned sofa cushion, the remains of a charred bamboo chair and broken glass, among other blackened objects.

In the alley behind the apartments, several crime-scene markers tagged potential evidence below the windows of the victims’ apartments.

As investigators gathered evidence, neighbors watched the proceedings from behind yellow tape. They said they did not know the victims, but many of the women expressed concern that the attacker is still on the loose.

Sitting on the front steps of the building next door, Maria Gonzalez said she is taking extra precautions.

“I lock the windows. I lock the door. If I see anybody different here, I will call the police,” Gonzalez said, pulling her 7-year-old daughter, Luzana, close to her. “And I will walk my daughter to and from school.”

Fidelina Perez, who saw the fire engines lining the streets early in the morning, said she doesn’t want to believe such an atrocious crime could happen in her neighborhood.

“I’m going to pray a lot to Jesus,” Perez said. “I pray for me, and I pray for the [attacker] to be put in the hands of the police.”