By Bill Lindelof
The Sacramento Bee
FOLSOM, Calif. — The Sacramento County Coroner’s office has released the name of the infant fatally stabbed during a violent incident in Folsom that left the baby’s mother critically wounded and the suspected assailant shot dead by police.
The baby was identified as Roberto Varela, just days short of 6 months old.
He was pronounced dead at 4:11 p.m. Thursday, which is about 90 minutes after police fatally shot a man brandishing a knife outside a Folsom apartment building Thursday afternoon after the baby and his mother were stabbed, authorities said.
The two victims and the suspect, who was shot after Folsom officers arrived at the scene on Montrose Drive at 2:30 p.m., were taken to area hospitals, said Officer Andrew Bates, Folsom police spokesman.
Little Roberto died at an area hospital. Neither the mother nor the suspect were identified.
“We received multiple calls of a stabbing that was in progress,” Bates said. “We had officers respond. The first officer to arrive confronted a single subject who was armed with a large knife. That officer shot the subject.”
Bates said the suspect, a male in his early 20s, died en route to an area hospital. Bates said the woman, the suspect’s aunt, was in critical condition at an area hospital.
Folsom police cordoned off Montrose Drive, a popular pass-through for motorists in the city, and called surrounding police agencies for assistance.
“We’re pouring out all of our resources into finding out what happened, (and) getting witnesses interviewed,” Bates said Friday afternoon.
James McClean, a neighbor, said he heard two gunshots and some screaming from the nearby apartment building as he was doing yardwork.
He said he went to investigate and saw authorities tending to a wounded man who appeared to be offering “some resistance.”
Nearby, he said, he saw an apparently injured woman “lying on the grass by the wall."" He said she was alive and “her legs were moving.”
Soon afterward, he said, he saw paramedics taking out an injured child.
Copyright 2014 The Sacramento Bee