‘Disrespected’ church cleaner stabs coworkers with scissors, California cops say
A cleaner at a Southern California church was arrested last week after a “vicious” scissors stabbing attack that injured her coworkers, according to local authorities.
Destinee Watson, the 23-year-old cleaner at Pentecostal Church of God in Bloomington, attacked coworkers during her daily cleaning rounds on Friday when she “felt she was disrespected by one of the church employees,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release on Monday.
Deputies described the fight that Watson is accused of starting as attempted murder.
Watson first grabbed one woman “by the hair and began punching her numerous times in the head,” according to the Sheriff’s Office.
When a second person tried to separate Watson and the woman she had attacked in the kitchen, Watson released the first woman, turned to the second woman and started to punch her instead, deputies said.
That’s when Watson brought the second woman to the ground, “grabbed a pair of scissors and began stabbing her on the head,” the Sheriff’s Office said. The woman was stabbed several times, leaving “numerous injuries.”
At that point, a third person came into the kitchen and pulled Watson off the stabbing victim — but Watson started stabbing that third woman in the face as well, deputies said.
The third victim ran to safety and waited for deputies to reach the scene and take Watson into custody, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Watson was arrested without incident, deputies said.
Watson faces attempted murder and battery charges following her 5:30 p.m. arrest and “was booked into the West Valley Detention Center with a bail of $1,025,000,” according to the San Bernardino Sun, which reported Monday that details on the victims’ injuries weren’t available.
Local prosecutors have not yet filed charges in the case, the Los Angeles Times reports.
This story was originally published December 3, 2019 at 3:05 PM with the headline "‘Disrespected’ church cleaner stabs coworkers with scissors, California cops say."
