Busy week for police

A drive-by shooting, a stabbing and a multi-agency manhunt may
sound more like news reports out of Oakland than Healdsburg, but
local law enforcement has investigated all three in the community
in the past week.
On Monday, the Healdsburg Police Department began the day with
reports of a stabbing and ended it with a drive-by shooting
investigation. These two incidents came just four days after a man
led Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputies on a car chase from northern
Windsor to Fitch Mountain, ending with the suspect arrested 12
hours later on felony warrants.
DRIVE-BY SHOOTING
A 29-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound to his leg told
police Monday that a gunman had shot at him from a white sedan on
Healdsburg Avenue. At 10:05 p.m. a call came in to the Healdsburg
Police Department reporting that a man had been shot on the 16000
block of Healdsburg Avenue. The unnamed victim told police that he
had been riding his bicycle home from work when the sedan drove up
next to him and slowed down. The victim said an occupant then fired
several rounds at him from a handgun. “He does not know who [the
shooter] is,” said Healdsburg Police Sergeant Kevin Young. “We have
no indications that it’s gang related, and there were no words
exchanged between the parties.”
Young said evidence collected at the scene backs up the man’s
story. “We found a bullet hole in the man’s leg and in his
bicycle,” he said. “We found shell casings in the area.”
The victim was then sent to Memorial Hospital in Santa Rosa to
treat his injuries. The case is currently under investigation and
authorities are asking anyone who was in the area of the incident
or who has information about the incident to contact the Healdsburg
Police Department at 431-3377.
STABBING
A man who allegedly stabbed his roommate in Healdsburg early
Monday morning was found dead less than two hours later by a Sonoma
County Sheriff’s Department helicopter north of Cloverdale,
according to a release by the Healdsburg Police Department.
The stabber—identified by police as 32-year-old Pavol
Karnaj—allegedly awoke his 39-year-old male victim at a home on the
15000 block of Healdsburg Avenue on May 24 by stabbing him in the
neck and throat area. The report says the two men had been involved
in a dispute related to a relationship. Healdsburg Police Sergeant
Kevin Young later added that both men lived at the home.
After a struggle the attacker fled the scene in the victim’s car
while the victim sought help from a neighbor and was taken to
Healdsburg District Hospital. The victim was later sent to Memorial
Hospital in Santa Rosa for further treatment.
Authorities soon after began a manhunt for the stabber, the
second in the past week in Healdsburg. The suspect was later found
dead near the Mendocino County line. According to a press release
by the Sheriff’s Department, the helicopter crew spotted the man at
the bottom of a 65-foot cliff. The crew recovered the body and
turned it over to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department’s
coroner.
The case is currently under investigation as an attempted murder
and a possible suicide. The victim’s identity has not been
released.
Authorities did not release Karnaj’s name until Wednesday after
notifying his family in his native Slovak Republic.
MANHUNT
Sonoma County Sheriff’s detectives arrested a man Thursday night
hours after he led deputies on a car chase and manhunt that began
in northern Windsor and ended in the Fitch Mountain area outside of
Healdsburg.
Wade Daniel Harris, 28, was located and arrested in the Dry
Creek Road and Grant Street area in Healdsburg. According to a
report, he was arrested after a brief foot chase and later booked
into Sonoma County Jail on felony warrants.
The arrest concluded a 12-hour ordeal that began at 10:09 a.m.
on Thursday when Windsor Christian Academy reported a strange man
was on campus near the fence line to the adjacent Windsor
Pick-n-Pull. Deputies arrived to find the man in his vehicle
leaving the area. Deputies attempted to stop the vehicle, but
Harris allegedly accelerated away from the officers and headed
north, managing to elude authorities with the aide of traffic.
With the help of citizens, deputies later located Harris in the
area of North Fitch Mountain Road in Healdsburg. Deputies soon
after found his abandoned car and firearms laying nearby. After
identifying the weapons authorities began an extensive manhunt and
notified residents of the incident through an automated telephone
system.
Harris evaded authorities for most of the day until he was
arrested that night.