Thread: Border Patrol employee arrested after hatchet attack UPDATE

Border Patrol employee arrested after hatchet attack

By Debbi Baker
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
Originally published 2:00 a.m. July 9, 2009, updated 9:11 a.m., July 9, 2009

ESCONDIDO — A Border Patrol employee was arrested Thursday morning after a hatchet attack that wounded a 21-year-old woman and left her boyfriend in critical condition, police said.

The assailant broke into the home on South Upas Street near West Ninth Avenue just after 1 a.m., Escondido police Lt. Neal Griffin said.

He struck the man several times in the neck and torso and wounded the woman in the legs, Griffin said.

Police detained a man, identified as Gamalier Rivera, after he was found at a nearby pay phone with blood on his clothes, Griffin said.

The couple both work as nurses and the woman rents a room at the house, said Cassandra Bollas, who is the sister of the wounded woman.

Bollas said the assailant came into her sister's bedroom and immediately attacked her boyfriend. She said her sister screamed for a long time until a housemate came in and told the man to leave.

Bollas said her sister was treated at a hospital and released, but they are not sure if her boyfriend will recover.

“She is in complete shock,â€

Arraignment Monday in hatchet attack

By Kristina Davis
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
8:15 p.m. July 10, 2009

ESCONDIDO – The day before veteran Border Patrol Agent Gamalier Rivera was arrested in connection with a bloody hatchet attack in a house in Escondido where his estranged wife and daughter were living, a judge ordered that his wages be garnished to pay $2,200 a month in child and spousal support.

Police say Rivera broke into the house and attacked a woman and her boyfriend with a hatchet, possibly because he mistook the woman for his wife.

The 29-year-old male victim, who police have not identified, remained in critical condition but was stabilizing by Friday afternoon. The woman was treated and released for leg injuries.

Rivera's wife, Erika Von der Heyde, and their 7-year-old daughter were in another room of the house and were not injured, Escondido police Lt. Bob Benton said. Investigators are still trying to determine if Von der Heyde was the intended target.

In a court document filed in April, Von der Heyde said Rivera was growing angry about their divorce.

“Unfortunately, I believe Gamalier has let his anger over our pending divorce and the financial obligations that come along with that cloud his judgment,â€