Police Arrest Man Wanted in Attack on 2 Women

SAN FRANCISCO â€”  A San Quentin Prison parolee wanted in connection with the brutal stabbing of two young women in Fremont was in custody Wednesday after passersby spotted him reclining on a city bench, police said.

Donald Paul Gatson, 22, was the subject of an intense police manhunt after the Monday attack on the two teenagers, who were each stabbed more than 15 times and left in a ditch to die. They remained in critical condition Wednesday.

Gatson fled when his alleged accomplice, Matthew Mark Koslowski, was arrested Monday by a Fremont police officer.

Passersby in San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza noticed Gatson on Wednesday afternoon because of a distinctive star tattoo on the back of his shaved head, said San Francisco police spokesman Sherman Ackerson.

Gatson did not resist arrest, Ackerson said.

Gatson was paroled July 3 from San Quentin after serving a term for receiving stolen property.

Fremont Det. Dennis Madsen said the victims were an 18-year-old from Fremont and a 15-year-old from Reno, Nev., who was visiting relatives in Alameda County. He would not provide further details on their identities.

Police said Gatson and Koslowski apparently met the victims early Monday. The pair were threatened with knives and a gun and taken to a 7-Eleven store.

The teenagers were forced to withdraw about $200 from an ATM, and the group then drove to a canyon about 30 miles southeast of San Francisco, police said. There, each of the victims was stabbed more than 15 times, and the younger one was shot in the face with a large caliber handgun before they were left for dead in a ditch, police said.