YAKIMA — A 58-year-old Wapato man is accused of stabbing another man in a dispute over a cellphone Saturday.
Wapato police received calls about an assault in progress, and the responding officer was flagged down by a witness who pointed to the suspect, who was walking toward the Wapato Police Department, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The suspect, identified as Salvador Salgado, refused orders to get on the ground and stood at the front door with his hands in the air, the affidavit said. He had blood on his clothes.
Officers found another man around the corner on the ground covered in blood with stab wounds on his back, his chest and under his left armpit, the affidavit said. Through interpreting bystanders, the man told police that Salgado had stabbed him in an argument over a cellphone, the affidavit said.
He was taken to MultiCare Yakima Memorial Hospital, where his condition was not immediately available.
A witness told police that Salgado was at a party and was intoxicated, demanding to know where his cellphone was, the affidavit said. She said the man who was stabbed was trying to calm down Salgado when he was stabbed.
Salgado slapped the witness in her face before leaving. He was booked into the Yakima County jail on suspicion of first- and fourth-degree assault.
At a preliminary appearance hearing Monday in Yakima County Superior Court, Judge Elisabeth Tutsch set bail at $100,000, per the prosecution’s recommendation, citing concerns about community safety.
“There was somebody who very easily could have been killed,” Tutsch said. “It seems like there was some real danger to the community.”
Defense attorney Melissa Derry sought to have Salgado released on court supervision, noting that he was heading to the police station to presumably turn himself in. She said that Salgado told police four people accosted him.
