Neighbor: 'He just stabbed her like she knew he would'

Neighbor: 'He just stabbed her like she knew he would'

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Story Published: Aug 22, 2008 at 11:25 PM PDT

Story Updated: Nov 21, 2008 at 1:06 AM PDT

By KOMO Staff

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KING COUNTY, Wash. -- Hortencia Salas doesn't know how she'll pull through.

Salas, a pregnant single mother of an 11-year-old girl, was stabbed by her boyfriend at her home in the Green Lake neighborhood one week ago.

According to police reports, Carlos Alejandro Diaz-Galvin was drunk when Salas returned home from her first day at a new job. The couple began arguing and Diaz-Galvin jabbed a utility knife into the chest of his girlfriend, who was 5½ months pregnant with his child.

Neighbors came to Salas' aid after they heard her cry for help.

"I saw him grab her and throw her very hard," said neighbor Bob Yancey.

As neighbors tried to help, Diaz-Galvin rushed at the woman with a knife, stabbing her in the side of her stomach, police said.

"I'm helping her up, I'm holding her and he just stabbed her like she knew he would," said Yancey.

Diaz-Galvin then threw a lawn chair at one of the neighbors and ran from the home, located in the 1400 block of North 49th Street. Police arrested him and recovered a knife in the area.

Salas was rushed to Harborview Medical Center, where she underwent open heart surgery. Salas is now out of the hospital, but still has a hard time breathing and can barely take care of herself, neighbor and friend Briana Yancey said.

"To see that (scar) on your friend that she'll wear around for the rest of her life -- it's a lot," she said.

"(She's a ) quality human being and she has no way right now of living her dream," said Bob.

To help the woman who nearly died and nearly lost her unborn baby whom she'll now have to raise without the help of the father, Salas' friends have set up a fund.

"To start a baby's room, which she's going to do," Briana said. "(Figure out) how to make this all work."

Diaz-Galvin has been charged with first-degree assault and second-degree assault. He also faces a third-degree assault charge for striking a police officer in the groin and a fourth-degree domestic violence charge for punching his girlfriend's daughter.

He is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 2 and is being held in King County Jail on $1 million bail.

A fund for Salas has been set up at Bank of America under "baby boy survivor."

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