SAN DIEGO — A U.S. Postal Service employee accused of stabbing a supervisor in the back of the head at a Carmel Mountain Ranch mail facility has been charged with assault on a federal employee, it was announced Friday.
Edwin Cuadrado Jr., 37, allegedly attacked the victim on Aug. 25 in the parking lot of a USPS mail processing and distribution facility on Rancho Carmel Drive.
A criminal complaint filed in San Diego federal court states that the stabbing arose from an earlier altercation between Cuadrado and a USPS supervisor at a gas station.
Cuadrado had parked his USPS tractor trailer at the gas station and the supervisor told him that USPS employees were not allowed to do that, according to the complaint. Cuadrado allegedly then threw something at the supervisor's car and pushed him.
That supervisor and two others confronted Cuadrado a short time later at the mail facility and planned to notify him that he was being placed on administrative leave.
When Cuadrado arrived, he allegedly pushed the supervisor from the earlier altercation again, then pulled out a knife, the complaint states.
The three supervisors tried to flee, but one lost his balance and fell and Cuadrado allegedly swung the knife at his head. The complaint states that Cuadrado and the supervisor he allegedly stabbed "had no prior altercations and did not work directly together." The victim was hospitalized and treated for a laceration.
Cuadrado allegedly drove away in his personal vehicle and was arrested by investigators on Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
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