Man accused of stabbing 7-year-old neighbor arrested after Rancho Cordova standoff
A 7-year-old girl was stabbed by her neighbor
By Lindsay Weber and Orko Manna
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RANCHO CORDOVA, California (KCRA) — A 7-year-old girl was stabbed by a neighbor at a Rancho Cordova apartment complex Tuesday night, according to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies responded to the 2800 block of La Loma Drive around 7:15 p.m.
Officials said the 7-year-old victim was stabbed in the back while in an outdoor common area of the apartment complex. She is expected to survive.
The sheriff’s office said the suspect, identified as 27-year-old Angelo Bagnas, is believed to have mental issues and barricaded himself in his apartment unit.
Deputies spent several hours working to take Bagnas into custody. But despite multiple attempts to contact him, he did not respond to law enforcement officers.
“Trying to talk him, negotiate with him, it was virtually a one-way conversation the whole time. He never engaged. We tried text messages, we tried phones, we tried PA announcements. We tried face-to-face using that rook, bringing the deputies to a threshold to try to establish some face-to-face contact. None of that was effective,” sheriff’s office spokesperson Amar Gandhi said.
Bagnas surrendered around 4:55 a.m. on Wednesday after deputies fired less lethal rounds at the man, officials said.
“He’s hurt a seven-year-old girl, of all people, so again, this is not something we’re going to mess around with. Again, the less lethal rounds is that next best option. They’re bean bag rounds. It hurts. It’s a pain compliance tool, but again, ultimately, it got us where we are, is with a surrender and him in handcuffs,” Gandhi said.
Sheriff’s deputies evacuated the apartments surrounding Bagnas’s unit during the standoff.
Wendy Lopez lives next door to the man who was arrested. She said she was already outside when the girl who was stabbed came running toward her.
“She said the neighbor had stabbed her, and stabbed her right here in the back, so yeah, it was just like what’s going on, what’s going on, and then all the craziness started happening,” Lopez said. “It was very traumatizing, it was crazy. It was absolutely crazy.”
Lopez said while Bagnas was still holed up inside his apartment, officers went into her unit to try and get him to come out.
“The SWAT team had come into our apartment and put ginormous holes in our daughter’s wall to get to him,” Lopez said.
Lopez told KCRA 3 that she had been concerned about her neighbor, but she added that she never expected that he could do something so violent.
“I’m glad that he’s been caught and arrested, and maybe he can get the help that he needs because he apparently needs it,” Lopez said.
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