Police Say Officer Shoots Man Attacking Woman in Apartment

A Takoma Park police officer yesterday shot a man who was holding a knife to the throat of a blood-soaked woman he had beaten with a religious cross, authorities said. A bullet passed through the man's chest and struck the woman's arm.

Neither the suspect nor the victim was critically injured. The suspect, who has been accused of domestic violence in the past, was taken into custody on attempted murder and other charges, police said.

The incident began at 12:13 a.m. when Takoma Park police received a call about a woman crying in an apartment in the 700 block of Hudson Avenue. The responding officer heard a commotion inside the apartment and called for backup.

"I think she sensed this was a life-and-death situation," said Takoma Park Police Chief Ronald A. Ricucci.

The officer forced her way into the apartment and saw a woman covered in blood and a man holding a knife to the woman's throat, police said. The officer told the man to drop the knife and fired her gun twice when he did not comply, Ricucci said. One of the shots struck the suspect and the victim.

Ricucci declined to identify the officer involved in the shooting. She has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending completion of the investigation.

Carlos Ivan Ovalle, 33, of Takoma Park was charged with attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault, second-degree burglary, violation of a protective order, false imprisonment and reckless endangerment. Court records show previous criminal cases against Ovalle going back to a 2005 assault conviction and at least two incidents in which a woman had secured a protective order against him.

Ricucci said Ovalle had assaulted the Takoma Park victim a year earlier and was under a protective order not to go near her.

Ovalle was being held in the Montgomery County jail last night. He does not have an attorney, court records indicate.

Ricucci said Ovalle broke into the woman's apartment yesterday and waited for her to come home. He hit the woman repeatedly with a cross, and pieces of it were found in her skull, the chief said.

"He was getting ready to kill her," Ricucci said.