A man accused of stabbing a pregnant woman multiple times at a drive-thru ATM in Mira Mesa was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on charges including attempted murder.
Cole Klemke, 29, is accused of attacking the victim — who was four months pregnant — at around 10 a.m. June 15, 2024, near the Target store on Mira Mesa Boulevard.
The woman was attacked after she pulled up to the ATM in her car, then exited her vehicle in order to reach the machine.
La policía buscaba a este hombre sospechoso de acuchillar a una mujer en un cajero automático de Mira Mesa el 15 de junio de 2024. (Departamento de Policía de San Diego)
Prosecutors allege that without exchanging words with the victim, Klemke approached her and stabbed her in the face and neck. The attack sent her to the ground, at which point Klemke allegedly punched the woman and tried to stab her additional times, according to testimony from a preliminary hearing held on Tuesday to determine whether Klemke could be bound over for trial on the charges.
The woman was able to fight off her attacker by kicking him, causing him to flee, according to prosecutors.
Some of the attack was captured on the ATM’s camera. Video footage played in court shows a man — who prosecutors allege is Klemke — approach the woman from behind and put his arm around her neck before attacking her with a knife.
NBC 7’s Shelby Bremer has disturbing new details of the attack and the suspect.
The victim was hospitalized, but was released later that day, San Diego Police Det. Kate Brooker testified.
Klemke was arrested one day after the stabbing.
Brooker testified that police circulated photographs captured from surveillance cameras of the alleged attacker to the public, resulting in a tipster contacting police and identifying Klemke as the man in the pictures.
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A woman was hospitalized after being slashed multiple times while at a Bank of America ATM in Mira Mesa on June 15, 2024. (NBC 7 San Diego)
After the stabbing, SDPD Detective Sgt. Erich Drilling told NBC 7 that what is on video is horrific, hard to watch and that it was clear the victim did not know her attacker was behind her. He made no statements or demands prior to or during the attack, and no property was taken, police said.
Along with attempted murder, he’s charged with mayhem and attempted robbery in connection with the stabbing.
He’s also charged with felony vandalism and brandishing a knife in connection with a separate incident that allegedly occurred two weeks before the stabbing.
In that incident, Klemke is accused of confronting a man who was driving to work by standing in front of the man’s car, carving an X on the hood with a knife, then demanding the man get out of his vehicle. The victim drove off and was not physically harmed.
Klemke, a Carmel Valley resident who played baseball for Torrey Pines High and the University of Nebraska, was known to police and was last contacted by authorities a week before the attack. Court documents show that he has a history of drug and mental health problems.
His mother, Brenda Klemke, filed a request for a domestic violence restraining order in August 2020. In that document, she requested that Cole stay away from all family members as well as the family’s Carmel Valley home.
“Cole continues to bring and use methamphetamines in our home,” Brenda wrote. “This causes him to be disruptive, belligerent and verbally abusive in the home. He was told that he could stay here as long as he was no longer violent and did not bring or use drugs in the home. He is currently refusing treatment for mental health issues and substance use disorder.”
Also in the document: Klemke’s mother claimed her son called her names and that “Cole took a pen and held it up to my husband’s throat and made a threat to cut his head off.”
A Superior Court judge dismissed the case, however.
Klemke remains in custody without bail.