An immigrant who entered the U.S. illegally and was subsequently deported for allegedly committing crimes across the country has been arrested in Indiana in connection with the stabbing of a teenage girl at her brother's baseball game, police said.
The suspect, 26-year-old Dimas Gabriel Yañez, was arrested Sunday “after an intense manhunt,” Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr. said, a day after a 14-year-old girl was stabbed in the hand with a butcher knife during a game in Lowell, Indiana. He said on Facebook.
Authorities said the attacker also tried to stab the girl's mother when she “tried to help her daughter”, but the mother has since been released from hospital after the “random” attack.
Yanez was quickly identified as a suspect, and the sheriff's office warned in a series of appeals over the weekend that he was “believed to be armed and dangerous.”
The suspect was finally spotted running through a cornfield in the southern part of the county on Sunday and was arrested “after a fierce pursuit and ultimately a foot chase,” according to the department.
“Prior to his arrest, the suspect was apparently in the process of cutting his hair to alter his appearance,” the sheriff said. Photos showed Yanez's thick hair, seen in previous wanted photos, was nearly all chopped off as he was handcuffed and taken away.
“Investigators have determined that Yanez was deported to Honduras in 2018 and may have engaged in criminal activity throughout the United States since his illegal return,” the sheriff's office said.
“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been notified of his arrest,” the department said in a statement.
The update did not provide details about previous crimes or locations for which the suspect is being pursued.
Yanez is being held in the Lake County Jail. “The investigation remains ongoing and we will provide more information as it becomes available,” the sheriff said.
