Man walks into grocery store, stabs woman in throat in northwest Fresno

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A man is facing multiple charges including assault with a deadly weapon after police say he walked into the Grocery Outlet on Shaw and Marty and stabbed a woman in the neck multiple times before fleeing the scene.

Officers tracked him down minutes later at a nearby apartment complex and arrested him.

"Witnesses say there was some conversation they had prior to this happening so we don't know if there is a prior relationship or he just talked to her today and didn't like what he heard and ending up stabbing her," said Lt. Joe Gomez.

According to investigators the 64-year old victim is believed to be a transient and is currently being treated at CRMC with non-life threatening injuries.

"She was gashed kind of where her artery is on the backside and kind of where the breast bone is... It was bloody. It was all over the side of the register and on the ground and all over the front of her," said Fred Moss.

Moss, an off-duty correctional officer at the Women's Prison in Chowchilla was shopping inside the store at the time.

His quick thinking may have saved the woman's life

"I see a lady there laying on the ground bleeding out her neck profusely," he said. "Get me some rags some gloves...so they got some from the back I put pressure on and were waiting someone was on the phone with paramedics and finally they got there."

Witnesses say the incident seemed like a random act of violence

"She said she was in there and someone came in and said they had an issue with her then they walked out then they came back in and it felt like she had been struck," Moss said.

Investigators are reviewing store security footage to try and determine what led up to the attack.