2 New Year's Day Stabbings In Lake Elsinore: Arrest Announced

LAKE ELSINORE, CA — An arrest was announced by the sheriff's department in connection with two New Year's Day stabbings in Lake Elsinore.

Andrew Ernest Avila, 28, of Lake Elsinore was taken into custody around 10:49 a.m. Thursday on N. Main Street and was booked into Murrieta's Southwest Detention Center on suspicion of attempted murder, mayhem, and assault with a deadly weapon, jail records show.

According to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, deputies from the Lake Elsinore station were called to the area of Lakeshore Drive and Spring Street on Jan. 1 and found two people who had been stabbed multiple times, but Avila, who was later identified as the suspect, had fled the scene.

"On January 7, 2021, Lake Elsinore Station Investigators, along with deputies from the Lake Elsinore Station County Problem Oriented Policing Team, identified the possible location where Andrew Avila was staying, responded to the area, and arrested [him] without further incident," the sheriff's department reported.

The sheriff's department did not release information about a possible motive for the stabbings; an update on the victims' was not disclosed.

Avila is due in court Monday. No bail has been set for him, according to jail records.

Anyone with additional information about the case is asked to call Investigator Andrade or Investigator Mills at the Lake Elsinore Sheriff’s Station: 951-245-3300.