Deputies Aiding Stabbing Victim Wound Man Brandishing Gun

Sheriff’s deputies shot a gun-toting man several times Friday night, critically wounding him, authorities said.

Thomas Elliott, 33, of Spring Valley, suffered gunshot wounds to the head and torso after he allegedly stabbed a man and later pointed a semiautomatic pistol at two sheriff’s deputies, said Lt. Ronald Van Raaphorst of the Sheriff’s Department.

At 7:40 p.m., deputies responded to an emergency call in the 9700 block of Lamar Street in Spring Valley, where they found Paul Hudson, 24, of Lakeside, outside a house bleeding from stab wounds to the stomach, chest and hips. Deputy Donald Steele began helping Hudson when he noticed Elliott leaving the same house with a semiautomatic pistol, Raaphorst said.

Steele, and his partner, Kelly Kidwell, opened fire after Elliott raised his pistol to eye-level, alternately pointing it at both officers, Raaphorst said.

A neighbor who witnessed parts of the incident from his bathroom window said that after being shot, Elliott continued reaching for his fallen gun, despite numerous warnings from the two deputies and other neighbors at the scene.

As he was about to aim his gun again, the deputies fired at him again, the witness said.

Paramedics then rushed Elliott to Sharp Hospital, where he remains in critical condition, a hospital spokesman said.

Hudson, the stabbing victim, was taken to Mercy Hospital, where he remains in intensive care in fair condition.

The stabbing was apparently Elliot’s attempt to make good on a threat that he had recently made against Hudson, the Sheriff’s Department said. Hudson was involved in a relationship with Elliott’s former girlfriend, Lawana Bailey, Lt. Raaphorst said.

Bailey, who lives at the house in which the stabbing and shooting occurred, answered Elliott’s knock at the door at 7:30 p.m., authorities said. Elliot then forced his way into the house and pulled the gun on Hudson, Lt. Raaphorst said. Bailey slapped and deflected the gun and the two men began to fight, Raaphorst said.

When Hudson wrestled control of the gun, Elliott grabbed a butcher knife, the sheriff’s spokesman said. Bailey then ran to her next-door neighbor’s house to make the emergency call, Raaphorst said.