Crime & Safety

Man Who Threatened Woman and Baby With Knife in Bathroom Pleads Guilty

The incident took place Dec. 12 in a bathroom in Kohl's at College Grove Mall in San Diego.

A transient who confronted a woman and her baby in a women's restroom at a College Grove Mall department store, then threatened them with a knife, pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony charge of attempted robbery.

Jason Robert Arringdale, 20, will be sentenced on Feb. 3 to a year in jail.

The victims were in a ladies' room at the Kohl's store on College Avenue on the afternoon of Dec. 12 when Arringdale exited a stall and tapped the woman on the shoulder with a knife, police said.

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Prosecutors said the woman pushed a cart toward the defendant and screamed "Stop him, stop him!" and he fled. She and her 4-month-old child were unharmed.

Arringdale was arrested without incident Dec. 18 on a Hillcrest roadside by a San Diego police sergeant who recognized him from surveillance-camera photos captured at the Kohl's where the crime occurred, SDPD Lt. Chuck Kaye said.

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The suspect, an Iowa native, told investigators he lived in Balboa Park.

Prosecutors said Arringdale stole the knife and a shirt from a nearby Walmart and stole a jacket and a calendar from Target before the bathroom confrontation at Kohl's.

In exchange for Arringdale's guilty plea, charges of assault with a deadly weapon and burglary were dismissed.


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