The first day he spent at his grandparent's Sykesville home, it appears 20-year old Alex Fields was acting normal, but the next day came with a potentially deadly surprise.
"The grandmother decides to take a nap on the couch,” says Sykesville Police Chief Michael Spaulding, “She reported that she was awakened from her nap to have her grandson standing over her glaring at her holding a knife to her throat. The grandmother was very alarmed by this and wanted to know what he was doing and that's when he made a statement to the effect of 'You have to die'."
The 75-year old woman fought off her grandson who only weighs about a hundred pounds and managed to run to her bedroom where she locked the door.
"At that point, he proceeded to go to the kitchen and get a larger knife and proceeded to start slashing at the door,” said Spaulding, “Thankfully the neighbors above her heard her crying out for help and to call 911. They did so and then came down and were able to come into the apartment and found Alexander still holding the large butcher knife."
According to charging documents, police discovered 10 separate gashes in that bedroom door, and physical evidence on the victim's neck that he had attempted to slash her throat, but the blade on the pocket knife was too dull.
"At the point that he awakened her, she felt like she didn't even know who he was,” said Spaulding, “She had to actually call out to him and say, 'Alex! It's Grandmom!' and she felt like he was just a different person at that point."
Baltimore County police have now confirmed that five weeks earlier, the same man attacked his mother on Chapel Road biting her arm, hitting her in the eye with a shoe and damaging her vehicle with a rock.
He even threw another rock damaging the police car as deputies responded to the call.
Fields was just released from a mental hospital in Delaware the day before he became convinced his grandmother had to die.
He was taken to Carroll Hospital for an evaluation last week and has since been booked into the Carroll County Detention Center where he's being held without bond on a series of charges including attempted first degree murder.
