A Linda Vista man is out of jail after he said he was wrongly accused of a violent crime. "I am not a vicious attacker, it's not my upbringing," said Mulugeta Hagos.
The 24-year old former U.S. Army sharpshooter lives a few blocks away from the 72-hundred block of Linda Vista Road. On April 18, a man, armed with a gun, tried to force a woman inside a car according to San Diego police. The gun went off during the struggle but the bullet didn't hit anyone. The suspect then pistol-whipped the woman, causing serious head injuries. The suspect took off in a car police said.
Four days later, police arrested Mulugeta Hagos on several charges including assault with a deadly weapon, attempted kidnapping and attempted sexual assault. In an exclusive interview, Hagos said he doesn't own a car or a gun. "The only gun I touched was in the military, my M-16,"Hagos said.
Hagos said he took a lie detector test on the day of his arrest and passed and that he had a strong alibi. At the time of the attack, Hagos was a security guard at Kaiser Permanente in Grantville. He told investigators he was at work at 6 a.m. the day of the attack. The attack in Linda Vista happened at 6:15 a.m. according to police.
Hagos asked investigators to verify his alibi by looking at the hospital's surveillance cameras and checking his work access card to see what time he clocked in. He waited for nearly two weeks at the South Bay Detention Center for detectives to check his alibi. During that time, Hagos was afraid for his life. "Inmates don't like people who are accused of rape," Hagos said.
On May 4, investigators released Hagos from custody after verifying his alibi. Hagos is angry that investigators took almost two weeks to free him and believes they violated his rights. "With the evidence of me being at work and taking the lie detector test, it wasn't enough for them," he said.
Hagos is considering a lawsuit against the department. Why did it take two weeks to check Hagos' alibi? Lt. Rick O'Hanlon, the lead investigator in the case, said that "investigations take time." He also said Hagos has not been completely ruled out in the case. O'Hanlon wouldn't say why investigators focused on Hagos in the first place, saying it was part of the investigation.
