A Sacramento man, identified as Jim, kindly opened his house to a homeless albeit helpful man named Mark Reese. Reese, who was known in the neighborhood and appeared to be friendly, has now been arrested and charged with attempted murder. After neighbor suspicions were made vocal, police found Jim with multiple stab wounds.
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For many of the Sacramento neighbors, Mark Reese seemed like the friendliest man who has ever lived. He met Jim last summer, according to CBS News, and he started helping him and other neighbors out with chores.
"Mark started taking care of the place," a neighbor, Amy Lopez, said. "He got it kind of back... cobwebs off, painted, got the place looking really, really nice." For her, Jim's friendly relationship with Reese was completely normal at first.
Eventually, their relationship evolved so much that Jim let Reese stay at his garage. Later, he would let him live inside his house. For Lopez, however, things started to feel "off" as she began to notice some odd behavior from Reese. What triggered her and other neighbors' suspicions was when Reese asked Lopez for some advice. He was wondering how Jim could leave his own hose to him.
Eventually, things went from odd to plain weird. Reese approached Lopez on another occasion, but he appeared to have completely changed.
"He was dressed up in fancy clothes all of a sudden," Lopez said. "He had a fedora on, he lost all this weight, he looked weird, and I just got this weird feeling that something was up."
Almost Stabbed To Death
Lopez, with her neighbors' approval, called Sacramento police and asked for a welfare check on both Jim and Reese on Sunday, January 26. Initially, the police said everything was perfectly fine with both of them. However, they called the police again, reporting a felony assault.
Police found Jim with multiple stab wounds and quickly transported him to the hospital. They then arrested Mar Reese and charged him with attempted murder, among other two unspecified charges.
Jim has no recollection of what exactly took place and only remembers watching a football game with Mark Reese. Unbeknownst to him and everybody else, the 55-year-old Reese has an extensive criminal history that started back in the '80s.
Lopez and the other neighbors have visited Jim in the hospital. He has a lengthy recovery road ahead of him. However, the support of his neighbors meant the difference between life and death.
"It's scary because you don't want to be Mrs. Kravitz, always looking out at everybody," Lopez said. "I really did have a gut feeling that something was wrong."
