Saturday, August 6, 2011

Rayne, LA: Authorities: Man steps in front of train after stabbing girlfriend

Police said Gregory William "Greg" Redondo Jr. of Duson killed himself Friday afternoon by standing in front of an oncoming train. His apparent suicide came about two hours after, authorities said, he stabbed his girlfriend in Rayne.

The 29-year-old was hit and killed by a train just off Cameron Street between Duson and Scott.

"We do believe that he made no attempt to get out of the way of the train," Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office spokesperson Kip Judice said. "Based on the interviews with the train conductor, he made no attempt to get out of the way, and he was clearly in the path of the train."

Exactly why Redondo took his own life may never be known, but officials with the Rayne Police Department and the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office think he stabbed his girlfriend, who has not been identified, three times around 11 a.m. Friday.

Rayne Police Chief Carroll Stelly said his office received a call at 11:04 a.m. of a "woman being stabbed at the corner of Oak Street and North Polk."

"Upon their arrival," a police report says, "they discovered a white female with three stab wounds, one to her arm, neck and chest."

The woman was transported to American Legion Hospital in Crowley, where she was listed in stable condition.

Two reports by KATC-TV and AcadiaParishToday.com detailed the scene at the stabbing.

Those reports said a passing couple called city police after discovering the woman, who reportedly ran from her assailant on North Polk. One of the witnesses, a man, indicated to police he witnessed the attack as it occurred.

A witness also reported the victim identified her boyfriend as her attacker.

The woman was drenched in blood, witnesses said, and she was holding a towel to her neck as she waited in a driveway for an ambulance.

Judice said his officers were contacted after "(the victim) identified the suspect in her attack, and that caused the Rayne Police Department to come into Lafayette Parish in an attempt to locate that subject."

While officers were traveling to the suspect's residence, they came upon an accident where an abandoned vehicle had struck a telephone pole on Jenkins Road, Judice said.

According to Judice, deputies confirmed the black Jeep Cherokee was the suspect's vehicle, and then began to canvass the area for an individual listed as a white male in his 20s.

While canvassing the area, Judice said deputies received information of a man walking by a nearby set of railroad tracks. As they were converging on the area, Judice said, deputies were alerted that a man had been hit by an oncoming train at about 12:56 p.m.

"A train was coming (and) it appears that the individual stepped in the path of the train," Judice said shortly after deputies found Redondo's body, which was recovered from underneath the train.

Judice said the day's events were "being categorized as an attempted homicide/suicide."

Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office and the Rayne Police Department are continuing the investigation.

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