Officials say that a man randomly stabbed and hit nine people with a car in the San Jose area, killing three and hurting nine more.
Police from San Jose and the nearby city of Milpitas said Friday that Kevin Parkourana, who lives in San Jose and is 31 years old, was taken into arrest in connection with the attacks on Thursday.
“We ended the crime spree,” Milpitas Police Chief Jared Hernandez said at a news conference on Friday. “We were able to effectively stop more people from getting hurt.”
At the press conference, San Jose Police Chief Anthony Mata said that Parkourana was arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder, and carjacking in connection with the violence in both cities.
Mata said that the attacks were “random acts of violence” and that no one was singled out.
No charges have been brought yet, and the public defender in the area had nothing to say about it.
Deputy Chief Steve Lagorio of the San Jose Police Department said that the spree began around 3 p.m. Thursday, when the suspect stabbed a victim and stole a Honda Odyssey minivan just a few blocks from his own home.
He said that the person was made better at a hospital.
Lagorio said that about 20 minutes later, the suspect got rid of the minivan and stole a Honda Pilot SUV by stabbing a driver in a San Jose parking lot. He said that when the suspect was driving, he hit a person on foot.
The tweet below verifies the news:
Three people were killed and nine others injured when a man randomly stabbed and struck victims with a vehicle in the San Jose area, officials say. https://t.co/iTZ4IvoUSc
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 3, 2023
Lagorio said that both people were taken to the hospital, where medical staff stabilized them.
He said that the suspect used the Pilot to hit a car in downtown San Jose around 4 p.m. Lagorio said that the man then went inside and stabbed the driver.
He said that the victim’s injuries did not seem to be life-threatening.
Lagorio said that a few minutes later, while still driving the SUV, the suspect “intentionally struck” three people near an intersection in San Jose. He said that two of the three people died at the spot.
He said that a short time later, the suspect hit a person on a bike in San Jose.
The rider and the third person hit did not have injuries that could kill them, cops said.
At 4:32 p.m., someone was stabbed in the parking lot of a Smart & Final store in nearby Milpitas. The SUV was found abandoned nearby.
At the news conference, the Milpitas chief, Hernandez, said that the person was declared dead at a hospital.
Hernandez said that the city’s police turned their attention to the Milpitas High School graduation ceremony going on nearby and sent a lot of officers to the area as a safety measure.
Tracking dogs showed that the subject might be in the area, and at 6:15 p.m., he was found. Hernandez said that Parkourana came out of a stopped car less than a quarter mile from the Smart & Final and turned himself in without a fight.
The names of the people who died have not been made public by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner.
The reason is being looked into.
Mata, the chief of San Jose, said that Parkourana is being watched.
Court records from Santa Clara County show that the suspect has been convicted of felony and minor crimes and had them dropped since 2018. A court docket says that family abuse was a part of one of the felony cases that led to a conviction.
The suspect was told to go to Mental Health Treatment Court more than once, the record shows. A plea to end his post-release community supervision, a program that moves people from state custody to local supervision, is a current case.
A representative for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said that the department would not say anything while the San Jose and Milpitas cases were being looked into.
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At a news meeting on Friday, Mayor of San Jose Matt Mahan said that the system of law enforcement and justice needs to be strengthened.
“When we’re dealing with people who have been convicted of crimes more than once, our city, county, and state need to do a better job of making sure they get the care they need or are taken off the streets,” he said.
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