Riverside Couple Allege Attack by Newfound Friend

Riverside police are seeking a man they say stabbed a UC Riverside student during an attempted rape in her apartment early Thursday.

Police went to the apartment when the woman’s husband fell from a fourth-story window while he was trying to summon help -- an incident initially reported as a possible attempted suicide.

The drama began Wednesday night, police said, when the 20-year-old husband befriended a man as they traveled from Los Angeles to Riverside on a Metrolink train.

The husband invited the man to his Sterling University Palms apartment in the 1400 block of University Avenue, where they watched television, drank beer and ultimately got drunk, police said.

After a few hours, the man was told it was time for him to go home, and he became belligerent, prompting the 20-year-old wife to intervene, police said. The man pulled out a canister of Mace, grabbed a knife from the couple’s kitchen and told the wife he was going to rape her, police said. The man forced the newlyweds into a bedroom and threatened to kill the woman if her husband interfered, police said.

“The woman was then able to draw the suspect into another room,� Riverside police spokesman Steven Frasher said.

The woman tried to escape in a struggle that left her and the perpetrator bloodied from knife wounds.

She sustained a minor stab wound to the hand.

As the wife and the man struggled, the husband tried to summon help by climbing out the window.

“He was hanging out the window, trying to call for help, and he lost his balance,� Frasher said.

The husband fell onto some grass. He fractured an ankle, hurt a wrist and was hospitalized at Riverside Community Hospital, police said.

The stabber ran from the apartment, across University Avenue, police said. Surveillance video from a nearby Savon showed him wearing a bloody yellow Old Navy sweatshirt.

Police say the man identified himself as Hugo to the husband and was wearing a white T-shirt and light blue sweatpants with a white stripe. He is wanted on suspicion of kidnapping, attempted sexual assault, criminal threats and assault with a deadly weapon.

Anyone with information on the man or incident is asked to call Riverside police at (951) 320-8003.