Man charged with attempted murder after machete attack on neighbor

A 28-year-old Fremont man has been charged with attempted murder and mayhem for allegedly attacking a neighbor with a machete at their apartment complex on Sunday morning.

The male victim in the alleged attack in the 300 block of Rockett Drive, near Central Park, was injured so badly that he’s expected to remain hospitalized for an extended period of time and may lose vision in one of his eyes, police said.

Officers responded to the apartment complex at about 11 a.m. on Sunday after the victim’s daughter called dispatchers “screaming that her father had been stabbed multiple times and was found dying on the floor of his apartment,” Fremont police Officer Anita Silva wrote in a probable cause statement.

Silva said that when she arrived at the apartment complex she noticed “a pool of blood on the concrete walkway leading to the front of the unit and the carpet mat was saturated with blood.”

Silva wrote that she found the victim “writhing in pain with apparent stab wounds to his face, neck, torso and hands.”

Silva said that before the victim was rushed to a hospital he told her that his neighbor had “stabbed him multiple times without reason.”

Silva said the victim’s daughter and other witnesses identified the suspect as Zekria Joyaa and investigators later learned that he had fled to his brother’s home in Union City after the attack and arrested him there at about 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Joyaa’s brother told police that Joyaa called him Sunday morning and said, “I just hurt this guy and want to come to your house,” Silva wrote.

The brother said Joyaa showed up in bloody clothes so Joyaa then discarded those clothes and changed into a new set of clothes he provided, according to Silva.

Joyaa told police that “he blacked out and has no recollection of the events,” Silva wrote.

After the attack the victim was placed in an incubator and doctors determined that he suffered four lacerations to his head, five lacerations to his left hand, two lacerations to his right hand and three lacerations to his right cheek, according to Silva.

Doctors said the victim’s most significant injury is to one of his eyes because they believe that he may not have functionality in that eye in the future, Silva wrote.

Joyaa, who is being held without bail, was arraigned on Tuesday and is scheduled to return to court next week to enter a plea.

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