Crime & Safety

Man Accused of Pulling Knife on Stepmother; Arrested by Murrieta Police

At 2:15 p.m. Friday, a resident at Silverado Apartment Homes, 25100 Vista Murrieta Road, called police and said her stepson, 31-year-old Charles William Cousert, was attempting to stab her with a knife, according to Murrieta police Sgt. Jay Froboese.

A man who allegedly pulled a butcher knife on his stepmother, causing minor injuries, was arrested Friday afternoon at a Murrieta apartment complex, a police sergeant said.

At 2:15 p.m. Friday, a resident at Silverado Apartment Homes, 25100 Vista Murrieta Road, called police and said her stepson, 31-year-old Charles William Cousert, was attempting to stab her with a knife, according to Murrieta police Sgt. Jay Froboese.

“She said he was intoxicated and that she had locked herself in the master bedroom,” Froboese said.

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Six Murrieta officers arrived and made contact with the 54-year-old woman, helping her out of the ground-level master bedroom through a window, the sergeant told Patch.

Officers then opened the front door of the apartment with a key she had provided. Inside, Froboese said they found Cousert.

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“He was asleep on the couch with a butcher knife next to his head,” Froboese said.

Cousert was taken into custody on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and booked into Southwest Justice Center near Murrieta. Bail information was not immediately available as of publication time.

Froboese said paramedics treated the woman for minor knife injuries—some of which were to her right arm—but that she declined to be taken via ambulance for further treatment.


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