Police: Hitchhiker attacked man in truck

[kw5kw]

No gun involved with this but it still makes for a good read and makes you realize that you need to protect yourself at all times:

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/1 ... t=dfw_news

Police: Hitchhiker attacked man in truck
By DEANNA BOYD
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER


FORT WORTH — It’s like a scene from the recent remake of the 1986 thriller The Hitcher.

A man and a woman pick up a hitchhiker, who then begins screaming and stabs the man repeatedly.

Fort Worth police say that’s what happened Thursday morning as the couple drove along the eastbound Interstate 30 service road near Cherry Street.

The 41-year-old victim, whose injuries included stab wounds in the left temple, across the bridge of his nose and through his right hand, was taken to Harris Methodist Fort Worth hospital. His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, police said.

The hitchhiker, identified by police as Mark Aaron Childers, 43, of Weatherford, was arrested on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital for a mental health evaluation.

“I think we can take a good lesson from what we teach our kids about stranger danger,â€? said Lt. Dean Sullivan, a police spokesman. “It’s probably not wise to pick up people . . . that you don’t know.â€?

Police said the couple were riding in a pickup about 9 a.m. when they spotted the hitchhiker walking along the service road. The passenger urged the driver to give the man a ride, telling her that he hoped that someone would do the same for him if he were in that situation, police said.

As the pickup slowed to a stop, the hitchhiker tossed a black garbage bag containing his belongings in the bed, then hopped into the back seat of the pickup’s extended cab. Asked where he was headed, he told the couple, “Down the street,� police said.

But police say that before the pickup had even traveled a block, the hitchhiker snapped. The passenger told police that he had been telling the newcomer about his recently born child when the hitchhiker suddenly began screaming “Kidnapper! Killer!�, then lunged forward with a pocketknife, stabbing the passenger several times in the head, shoulder and arms.

Sullivan said the driver quickly pulled the pickup into an animal clinic, and she and the passenger jumped out. Employees inside the animal clinic locked the door and called 911.

Police said the hitchhiker chased the driver around the truck, then slashed all four tires. He was banging on the animal clinic doors, screaming at employees to let him in when police arrived.

“According to one of the witnesses inside the business, they did observe the bloody knife in the suspect’s hands as he was banging on the front door, yelling ‘Let me in. Let me in,’ â€? Sullivan said.

Police said Childers told officers that he had been kidnapped by the couple and had been forced to drink beer and use drugs. While seated in the back of a patrol car, he also told officers that a hamster was after him and that there were animals in the front seat.

Parker County records show Childers had just been released from Parker County Jail on Friday after an 18-month state jail sentence he received for a conviction of abandoning/endangering a child was suspended.

Records show that Childers also has convictions out of Parker County for unlawful carrying of a weapon and deadly conduct.


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[Tote 9]

Certainly a mental case. In these days I would never pick up a hitch hiker.
even though I'm allways armned. Reminds me of the old days( 55 yrs. ago)
when you didn't worry about picking up a BG. There just wasn't that many
back then.

My uncle and I use to get up at daylight. hitch hike 40 mi. from Texarkana
to Kildare to my Grandaddys, go hunting, then hitch hike back. Sometimes
the round trip would take us 10 different rides. We didn't have to walk very
far. But, you don't do that in todays time, too many crazy, evil people.