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€