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Toddler Fatally Stabbed By Mother's Co-Worker For 'No Known Motive,' Police Say

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A 3-year-old girl was fatally stabbed by a man at a garment factory in downtown Los Angeles yesterday. Chillingly, her alleged attacker has offered no motive for the crime. Ruby Vasquez, age 3, had just come from daycare to a garment factory in the 800 block of McGarry Street to see her mother at about 5:15 p.m. Monday, the L.A. Times reports. According to City News Service, the girl's father would frequently bring the girl to see her mother at the factory after daycare let out.

Without any provocation or warning, one of the mother's coworkers, 34-year-old Ricardo Utuy, began stabbing the girl. The girl's parents rushed her to the hospital, flagging down an ambulance on the way, where the toddler later died.

Utuy fled the scene following the incident, but was arrested at about 2:30 a.m. this morning. Little is known about Utuy. He is a Guatemalan national, who had been employed at the factory for about two weeks. Utuy did not know the family, and did not frequently interact with the girl's mother at work. LAPD Capt. Jorge Rodriguez said that other employees at the factory noted that Utuy would occasionally talk to himself.

"That's the bizarre thing about this, there is no known motive," LAPD Detective Moses Castillo said, according to KTLA.

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