He thought woman was a cannibal, so he stabbed her repeatedly in grocery, police say

A Fresno man who stabbed a homeless woman repeatedly at a northwest Fresno grocery last week did so because he believed that she was a cannibal, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said Wednesday.

Manuel Bracker, 32, is being held in the Fresno County Jail on an attempted murder charge.

The 63-year-old victim was rushed to a hospital in critical condition after the attack March 5. Stabbed twice in the neck, the victim collapsed near a checkout line in a pool of blood. Police say she will survive.

Bracker ran from the store after the attack, pursued by employees, and was arrested by police after he became involved in another altercation with a driver near an apartment complex.

Dyer said Bracker and the victim did not know one another, something that made the violent assault more “shocking” to investigators.

“She went into the store, he followed her into the store, and he ended up stabbing her with a knife,” the chief said.

“ The detective did speak with him ... and the reason he stabbed her was that he said that she had ‘cannibalistic tendencies,’ ” Dyer added. “For whatever reason, he believed that, and he went into the store and stabbed her.

“That doesn’t happen very often.

“He had no other reason to do what he did other than he believed that she was a cannibal.”

This story was originally published March 13, 2019 at 3:22 PM.