Tempe police say a suspect in the attempted killing of a woman has been arrested in Oklahoma.
Police say Lester Stanley Austin III was being held on a $1 million cash bond after the Oklahoma Highway Patrol identified him as a passenger in a vehicle that was stopped Friday near the Tennessee border. The vehicle was a rental and the original vehicle believed to be involved in the Monday assault, a 2002 purple Chevrolet Monte Carlo with Arizona License Plate No. 352-ZEG, is still outstanding. Anyone with information regarding this vehicle is asked to contact the Tempe Police Department at (480) 350-8311.
Police say Austin and his friend Michael Walls met the woman at noon Monday at the Walgreens pharmacy at Mill Avenue and Broadway Road moments before she got inside the Monte Carlo. As the trio was traveling along a highway, Austin and Walls started arguing over property and Austin began assaulting the woman, choking her, and held a knife to her throat, according to police. As the vehicle came down an exit ramp, the woman kicked a window out of the car, jumped out of the moving vehicle and was able to run to a nearby house for help.
Walls was arrested on Wednesday in Tolleson on suspicion of kidnapping and aggravated assault.
