Update, May 17, 2022: Shellena Tate was convicted of felony assault with a deadly weapon as part of a plea deal Feb. 28, 2022. No sentencing information was available via Alameda County court records, and she is no longer in custody in either local jail or state prison, according to online records.
Original story: The 27-year-old woman who was arrested over the weekend on suspicion of stabbing a woman seven times in the neck and legs, leaving her with serious injuries, has been charged with attempted murder, according to authorities and court papers.
The victim, a 30-year-old woman, was rushed to Highland Hospital in Oakland after the attack early Saturday morning but is expected to recover, the University of California Police Department said Thursday. The stabbing took place in a tent in People’s Park, in the 2500 block of Dwight Way.
The park is within UCPD’s jurisdiction because it is university property, but officers from the Berkeley Police Department initially handled the incident. That’s because BPD officers were already in People’s Park just after 2 a.m. Saturday investigating an unrelated stabbing, UCPD said. A BPD officer “heard a commotion inside a tent,” according to court papers, and saw a woman — later identified as Shellena Tate — come out of the tent “in an agitated state.”
Another woman also came out of the tent, according to court papers, and the officer saw a “dark, wet stain forming on the legs of her pants.” A witness nearby told police the agitated woman had attacked the wounded one, according to UCPD.
Tate — who was holding a knife, according to authorities — fled the park on foot when officers tried to speak with her, according to UCPD. She discarded the knife along the way, UCPD said.
BPD officers followed Tate and, “after a short foot pursuit,” took her into custody in the 2500 block of Telegraph Avenue, at Dwight Way, UCPD said.
According to radio traffic reviewed by Berkeleyside, BPD used less-lethal force to take Tate into custody. Tate has no permanent address, according to authorities.
In court papers, UCPD said the woman who was attacked was left with a “large slit across the left side of her throat, approximately five inches in length” as well as six stab wounds to her legs.
After the initial response, the University of California Police Department took over the case because it was within that agency’s jurisdiction.
On Wednesday, the Alameda County district attorney’s office charged Shellena Tate with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, identified as a knife, according to court papers. Tate has no prior convictions listed in court documents.
On Thursday, UCPD declined to release a booking photograph of Tate, saying, “this is not our practice.”
According to jail records online, Tate remains in custody at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. She is being held without bail.
Tate is scheduled to enter a plea in the case March 24 at the East County Hall of Justice in Dublin, according to jail records online.
UCPD asks anyone with information about the case to call the agency at 510-642-6760.
