A 28-year-old Oakdale man, George Grass, was due in Stanislaus County Superior Court on Wednesday, Aug. 26, a week after his arrest in connection with a stabbing death in Oakdale.
The victim was identified as Jackie King, 37, of Oakdale, who succumbed to injuries inflicted by Grass in a mid-morning incident on Aug. 19.
Two females in the South Sixth Avenue apartment, both in their 20s, were injured, police said, through the injuries were classified as non-life threatening. The incident drew a multi-agency response and shut down South Sixth between F and G streets in Oakdale for a couple of hours on Aug. 19.
Police were called to the scene about 10:45 a.m., after receiving several 911 calls regarding multiple stabbing victims in the 100 block of South Sixth. Oakdale Police arrived on scene and located multiple injured victims. When they arrived, Grass fled and barricaded himself inside an upstairs apartment.
According to information from the Oakdale Police Department, officers surrounded the building and repeatedly ordered Grass to come out, then utilized less than lethal munitions to disable surveillance cameras posted outside the man’s apartment. Grass then threw some explosive fireworks out of an upstairs window at officers at the rear of the apartment.
The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department assisted with deputies and a SWAT team. After approximately an hour of negotiating with the suspect, Grass surrendered to officers without further incident and was taken into custody. He was later jailed without bail pending further court action.
“A family member assisted law enforcement with negotiating with the suspect to surrender. This was a very tragic incident for all involved,” said Oakdale Police Chief Scott Heller. “Our officers and assisting first responders performed in an outstanding manner as they provided life saving measures while simultaneously containing and engaging the barricaded suspect on scene, ultimately leading to an efficient surrender with no further risk posed to the community.”
Grass was jailed without bail on the charges, which included homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant and resisting officers.
“We are continuing to investigate to determine the motive,” added Heller. “I want to thank the family member who assisted us during the negotiations that led to the suspect’s surrender. Our priority was to de-escalate the situation and keep the public out of harm’s way. Although the suspect became combative and threw objects at our officers, I’m proud of our team for bringing this to a peaceful end.”
