An Oregon woman faces a long road to recovery after she was stabbed 11 times with a kitchen knife outside her apartment by a stranger who was on parole, in what police have described as a chilling random attack.
Lauren Carrier, 30, can now walk using only a cane and cannot move her arm.
The incident began when Bryan Aguilera, 27, showed up at her home in Beaverton — just outside of Portland — on March 3, looking for someone named Jasmine.
She told him he was in the wrong place – but for some reason he returned the next evening and set Carrier’s alarm bells ringing.
“I opened the door just a crack and he started hitting and stabbing me. And that’s when I knew I had to fight because he was pushing me from the front door,” Carrier told local broadcaster KOMO.
Carrier, who has a 9-year-old daughter who wasn’t home at the time, grabbed a bat to fend off her attacker and began screaming for help, according to the outlet. Her neighbors came to the rescue, with one holding Aguilera until police arrived.
According to court records, Aguilera was on probation at the time of the March 4 incident.
He has been held in the Washington County Jail since Sunday afternoon on $25,000 bail for attempted murder, first-degree assault, burglary, two counts of third-degree theft and four counts of wrongful use of a weapon.
Carrier is recovering at home and walking with a cane. She says she can no longer move her right arm after the brutal knife attack.
Lauren Carrier, 30, was at her home in Beaverton, Oregon on March 4 when a random man knocked on the door and brutally stabbed her 11 times in a random attack
Carrier, who has a 9-year-old daughter, grabbed a bat to defend herself as her neighbors helped her and ended up chasing the suspect, 27-year-old Bryan Aguilera
She was hospitalized with a broken rib, a punctured lung and severed nerves in her right arm and is now recovering at home
The Beaverton Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from .
According to the Beaverton Valley Times, Aguilera hails from Woodburn, about 28 miles south of Beaverton.
Police said he repeatedly stabbed Carrier from the other side of her front door.
“He just started hitting me and all of a sudden he grabbed a 7 inch kitchen knife and started stabbing and trying to shove me into my living room and I knew I was going to die if I didn’t get out of my apartment,” she told KPTV.
She grabbed a bat to fend it off, adding that her father always taught her to keep one at the door in case she needed to defend herself.
“I thought in my head, ‘My mother. Somebody has to tell my mom. “Because I thought I was going to die,” she told KOMO.
“My neighbors were incredible,” Carrier said. “You got towels; They made tourniquets out of it, which 911 was called. My attacker ran away and two other neighbors ran after him, grabbed him and held him until the police arrived.’
Carrier said: “He severed the nerves in my arm; I can’t move my arm anymore’
The stabbing happened on the evening of March 4 at her apartment complex in Beaverton, just outside Portland
In an update on Facebook on March 18, Carrier said: “I’m back home feeling so full of love and support. I am ready for this new journey. I’m already starting to walk a few steps without a cane, I can get up and down the stairs (with help) and I can tie my shoes with one hand!’
She was hospitalized with a broken rib, a punctured lung and severed nerves in her right arm.
A GoFundMe fundraiser posted on her behalf has raised nearly $16,000 since March 6.
“She had two punctured lungs and broken ribs and cannot feel or use her right arm,” the description reads.
“Lauren has come a long way to recovery, physically and mentally. She will not be able to work for the foreseeable future and is a single parent. Thankfully, Lauren’s child was not home at the time of the attack. Lauren’s amazing family will be able to accommodate her, but she will need financial support to meet her basic needs while she recovers.”
On March 18, Carrier posted an update on her recovery on Facebook.
“I’m back home feeling so full of love and support. I am ready for this new journey. I’m already starting to walk a few steps without a cane, walk up and down stairs (with help), and can tie my shoes with one hand!
A GoFundMe fundraiser posted on her behalf has raised nearly $16,000 since March 6
Carrier posted an update on her recovery on March 18, telling her followers that she is “grateful and happy to be alive.”
“I am in a lot of physical pain, but the love of family, friends and our community has overshadowed that pain. I am so, so grateful and happy to be alive and I will not let anyone kill my spirit,” she wrote.
Beaverton is a Portland suburb already on track to surpass last year’s record-breaking homicide rate.
The Pacific Northwest city has ended February this year with 22 homicides so far — up from 19 in 2021 — and is on track to hit about 130 by December, according to the Oregonian.
The city, which slashed its police budget following protests over the killing of George Floyd, set a record 92 murders last year – the highest since 1987’s 70 homicides.
Portland has already had 22 homicides since early 2022, up from 19 in the same period last year, and is expected to be as high as 130 by the end of December. If it hits 126, 2022 will surpass 2021’s record 92 homicides – breaking the 34-year record of 70 homicides set in 1987
The Portland Police Bureau suffered a series of retirements and resignations after Portland politicians accepted calls to defund the police force.
A total of $15 million was originally cut from the city’s budget, with progressive Portland prosecutors also being criticized for refusing to charge 70 percent of those arrested by the city’s police force.
In an attempt to stem the violence, the police department set up a new “Focused Intervention Team” that took to the streets in January.
The team is tasked with addressing gun violence and the proliferation of deadly weapons in a city where around 75 percent of victims are killed by gun violence.
But local business owners, like longtime downtown Margulis Jewelers, say they haven’t seen much respite from rising crime.
For nine decades, the store’s treasure-filled windows had visitors rushing through bustling downtown Portland and stopping to marvel at the delicate, vintage-style gems — but owner David Margulis said he made the “agonizing decision to go.” close after losing a fight with”. Vandalism, homelessness and a sense of nocturnal lawlessness.’
Despite best efforts, Margulis Jewelers couldn’t win the battle against “the vandalism, the homelessness crisis and the sense of nighttime lawlessness in the broken downtown,” owner David Margulis said
Margulis took over management of the store from his father, Jerome Margulis, in 1985 after he founded the company in 1932
“Portland has endured the perfect storm of adversity, and independent businesses simply cannot withstand the economic forces that have caused the decay and resulting emptiness of downtown Portland,” he added.
Margulis had long denounced the area’s descent into violence, accused city officials of “leading the conversation but not leading the way,” and compounded the issue with guard politics.
As a last resort to salvage his declining business, Margulis conducted a “survival sale” three months ago that raised 20 to 40 percent of the multimillion-dollar business’s total inventory.
The measure wasn’t enough to offset the 72 percent drop in downtown foot traffic — and the homeless encampments and riots that are driving potential customers away.
The city of roses has seen a 47 percent increase in robberies year-to-date through January.