California Tow Operator Mortally Stabbed Dies "Updated 04.16.22"

[rreschran]

UPDATED:

Skyline killer lured tow truck driver at random,

coworker says: ‘Anyone could’ve gone up there’

Driver stabbed to death after answering call for help

 

The call came in to Specialty Towing late Tuesday night, from a man who said his car had broken down on Skyline Boulevard near Woodside. The man, who gave his name as Sean, said he needed a tow truck to take him to San Bruno.

 

Sandra Lopez, an administrative assistant with the towing company, said no one at the company knew the location the caller gave was on the same stretch of road where a man had been found stabbed to death the night before.

 

“There were no red flags,” she said. So a dispatcher sent 31-year-old John Sione Pekipaki out to handle the call in one of Specialty’s dark green tow trucks.

 

The call seems far more sinister in hindsight — an apparent ploy to lure the tow truck driver up to an isolated point on the winding road, where authorities say Malik Dosouqi stabbed Pekipaki to death, then tried to drive a car at sheriff’s deputies when they discovered Pekipaki mortally wounded and calling for help.

 

Deputies shot at the car, though they failed to hit the driver. They later arrested Dosouqi, a 26-year-old Pacifica man, after he crashed into a nearby ditch. Prosecutors are expected to charge Dosouqi with Pekipaki’s murder once he is released from a local hospital, where he is being treated for unspecified injuries he sustained Tuesday night.

 

Authorities have not explicitly said Dosouqi is a suspect in the first fatal stabbing on Skyline Boulevard — that of 32-year-old Pacifica taxi driver Abdulmalek Nagi Nasher — but say they are investigating whether the killings are linked, given their similarities.

 

The call to Specialty Towing that Lopez described points to another common thread: the two victims were apparently lured at random.

 

The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office has not detailed any motive for the killings, and did not respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

 

But a cousin of Nasher, the taxi driver, said he went missing after a customer called him requesting a ride from El Granada to Santa Cruz late Monday night.

 

Lopez said she heard from a friend at another towing company that they had also gotten a call requesting a tow on Skyline Boulevard late Tuesday night, but that the company had been too busy to send a truck. She also said she did not recognize Dosouqi’s name as someone who had a conflict with Specialty Towing in the past.

 

“It was just a random call — anyone could’ve gone up there,” she said.

 

Pekipaki, who lived in East Palo Alto, was working to rebuild his life and attempting to reconcile with the mother of his two children, Viliami, 12, and Pamela, 1, after scrapes with the law that led to a divorce.

He joined Specialty Towing in January, Lopez said, and was known around the company as a professional and friendly driver.

 

“He was a really great guy — he was really sweet,” Lopez said. “He was a very hard worker, very willing to go out there and help people.”

 

At some point after Pekipaki left the Specialty Towing lot Tuesday night, he called back to the dispatcher to say he was having trouble finding the stranded driver in the fog, Lopez said. That was the last time anyone at the company heard from him.

 

Authorities said they found Pekipaki near a dirt turnout off of Skyline Boulevard after returning to the scene of Monday’s homicide to search for more evidence. Pekipaki died at the scene.

 

The sheriff’s office told Lopez that the door to Specialty’s truck was found open and the inside was clean, indicating Pekipaki was attacked after he got out.

 

As a driver, Pekipaki handled breakdowns and crashes, as well as requests to tow away illegal parkers — the kinds of calls on which drivers expect to find irate drivers, and are ready for a confrontation, Lopez said. She keeps an aluminum baseball bat propped up next to her desk at Specialty Towing’s offices.

 

But the call for a tow on Skyline Boulevard did not seem like the kind of job a driver would have to be on guard for, she said.

 

“It’s just really sad that his heart was to go out there and help that stranded person,” Lopez said.

 

RESOURCE LINK

 

---

 

----------------------

 

California reports that a 31-year-old tow truck driver died from injuries inflicted by an individual with known mental issues. While details are not yet known, the victim's brother stated the tow driver was reportedly on a call when stabbed around 11 PM Tuesday night.

 

That stabbing occurred 24-hours after a taxi driver was also stabbed and killed in the same county. It is not yet known if both stabbings were by the same victim or if the crimes were related. As sheriff deputies responded to a call for help and arrived on-scene to help the mortally injured tow operator, a vehicle sped towards deputies. Deputies fired at the vehicle where it lost control and crashed. The vehicle's driver was taken into custody with non life-threatening injuries. 

 

As this is an on-going investigation, I choose not to report the victim's name of the company he worked for. According to my archives, this is the 8th, "freakish", tow operator death that wasn't due to typical reasons towers get killed. California  and Texas are tied counting 5x tow operators killed this year. Christine and I send our prayers and condolences to the tow company he worked for. Here's a news link.     R.

 

http://www.ktvu.com/news/ktvu-local-news/homicide-victim-remembered-as-a-hardworking-tow-truck-driver

 

UPDATED:

 

Homicide victim remembered as a hardworking tow truck driver

 

WOODSIDE, Calif. (KTVU) - A South Bay father, who was killed in a rural road in unincorporated San Mateo County, is being remembered Wednesday night as a hardworking tow truck driver.

 

Authorities said 31-year-old John Pekipaki was found stabbed to death in a remote stretch of Skyline Boulevard Tuesday night. He is the second murder victim who was found on that road in 24 hours. The other victim is 32-year-old Abdulmalek Nasher, a taxi cab driver from Pacifica. 

 

Deputies announced 26-year-old Malik Dosouqui of Pacifica is in custody. Authorities are trying to determine if the suspect had prior contact with the two murder victims. A source tells KTVU it appears Dosouqui did not know them.

 

Liki Pekipaki is John Pekipaki’s sister. Sheriff deputies found Pekipaki gravely injured and calling for help around 11 p.m. He later died at the scene.

 

“They said it was a late-night call,” said Liki Pekipaki. “I guess 50 yards from where they were searching the other victim before they heard him.”

 

Deputies were there investigating another homicide from 24 hours prior. The victim is a Yemeni-American cab driver, 32-year-old Abdulmalek Nasher of Pacifica. Nasher also received a work call Monday night. 

 

“Both homicides happened in close proximity of each other and both victims died from multiple stab wounds,” said Lt. Stephanie Josephson of San Mateo County Sheriff’s Dept. “Investigators are actively looking into a connection between the two homicides.”

 

Deputies detained 26-year-old Malik Dousouqui of Pacifica after discovering Pekipaki. A source tells KTVU Dousouqui has a mental illness. Deputies said Dosouqui tried to flee and fired at his car to stop him.

 

“The suspect was not hit by gunfire but the vehicle went off the roadway into a ditch,” said Lt. Josephson. “The suspect was taken into custody and is receiving medical care for a laceration to his arm.”

 

“It was foggy up there and he couldn't find the person who called for service,” said Lene Lauese of East Palo Alto. “He told the receptionist he's going to leave and go back to Redwood City.”

 

Pekipaki worked as a tow truck driver for Specialty Towing, a small operation out of East Palo Alto.

 

Lauese works at a tow yard next door and said she last saw Pekipaki Tuesday at 6 p.m.  Later that night, he was dispatched to a call.

 

“The person who called for the service is that the person who killed him that I don't know,” said Lauese.

Liki Pekipaki said her brother was a caring man, who was loyal to his family and worked hard for his kids.

“He was a regular guy just trying to make a life out here,” said Liki Pekipaki.

 

The district attorney’s office has yet to receive the case since the suspect is recovering from his injuries at the hospital. Relatives said Pekipaki leaves behind an 11-year-old son and one-year-old daughter.

 

http://www.ktvu.com/news/ktvu-local-news/homicide-victim-remembered-as-a-hardworking-tow-truck-driver

 

 

Skyline Boulevard stabbing spree still under investigation

https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/06/20/skyline-killer-lured-tow-truck-driver-at-random-coworker-says-anyone-couldve-gone-up-there/

[Doreen ur Finance Lady]

Dear God I pray for John Pekipaki's family, friends, and co-workers at Specialty Towing. This is a senseless act of violence on innocent people doing there job to support there family.  I am so upset over hearing news like this.

[5towman]

I’m speechless. It just wrong. Condolences to his family. 

[mooresbp]

Our thoughts and prayers go out the the family and friends,

[TowBot]

California Man Charged with Murder of Tow Operator Deemed Incompetent for Trial "UPDATED 03.17.22" 

By TowBot, October 24, 2019

 

Malik Dosouqi, who has been charged in the murder of tow truck operator John Sione Pekipaki, 31, and taxi driver Abdulmalek Nasher, 32, near Woodside, Calif., in June has been declared mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Two court appointed doctors made the declaration after a San Mateo County judge ordered an evaluation of Dosouqi, of Pacifica, Calif. Dosouqi has been charged with allegedly luring Nasher to a remote location for a taxi ride and fatally stabbing him. He then lured Pekipaki to a nearby location on the premise of a tow call before fatally stabbing him.

Dosouqi is being held without bail and prosecutors have asked for time to review the doctor’s reports. The case will resume Nov. 1.

View the full article and more on TowTimes.com

[TowNews]

 

A Pacifica man charged with murdering two men he allegedly lured to a desolate highway in San Mateo County in June was found not competent to stand trial, officials said.

 

A judge in the Superior Court of San Mateo County determined Friday that Malik Dosouqi, 26, was not competent to stand trial based on the findings of two doctors who examined him, according to the San Mateo district attorney’s office.

 

Dosouqi allegedly lured a taxi driver and a tow truck driver to a rural road in the forest where he stabbed them to death on June 18 and June 19. He was charged with two counts of murder with special circumstances.

 

Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County’s district attorney, said Dosouqi was found incompetent to stand trial because a mental condition prevents him from assisting his attorney in a rational manner, which is required by California law.

 

“We understood based on the two doctors’ reports, this was the only path that could be followed at this time,” Wagstaffe said. “But we’re optimistic that the state hospital people can do their job and we can resume this case somewhere in the not too distant future.”

 

32-year-old Abdulmalek Nasher was found off the side of Skyline Boulevard near Reids Roost Road on June 18 with multiple stab wounds.

 

RESOURCE LINK

[TowNews]

Man convicted of Skyline Boulevard ambush killings after case delayed by competency question

Malik Dosouqi was initially sent to a state hospital after being deemed unfit for trial, then was reclassified last year

 

 

REDWOOD CITY — Malik Dosouqi has been convicted of the 2019 ambush murders of a cab driver and tow truck driver who authorities say he lured with calls for help, only to fatally stab them, capping a court case that was shelved for years after Dosouqi was initially deemed mentally unfit to stand trial.

Malik Dosouqi has been convicted of murdering two people in what authorities

described as ambush attacks on Skyline Boulevard near Woodside in June 2019.

(San Mateo Co. Sheriff’s Office) San Mateo County Sheriff's Office

 

On Thursday, Judge Lisa Novak issued her verdict after a seven-day trial, convicting Dosouqi of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Abdulmalek Nagi Nasher, 32, and 31-year-old John Sione Pekipaki on June 17 and 18 in 2019, on a thinly traveled stretch of Skyline Boulevard that runs through Woodside.

 

Each murder count carried sentencing enhancements for lying in wait, committing multiple murders, using a deadly weapon, and inflicting great-bodily injury that make it likely he will serve a lifetime prison term after his scheduled sentencing on April 15.

 

The deaths marked what Chief Deputy District Attorney Sean Gallagher called “some of the most violent scariest murders we’ve had in this county in some time.”

 

https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/03/17/man-convicted-of-skyline-boulevard-ambush-killings-after-case-delayed-by-competency-battle/

[TowNews]

Man sentenced in Pacifica murders

 

A 28-year-old man found guilty of stabbing two people to death along Skyline Boulevard in 2019 was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole Friday, the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office said.

 

Malik Dosouqi stabbed 32-year-old Abdulmalek Nasher on June 17, 2019, and 31-year-old John Sione Pekipaki the next day. Dosouqi lured Nasher, a cab driver, to Skyline Boulevard, where he murdered him with a large knife. A Sheriff’s Office deputy found Nasher’s body at 11:09 p.m. in a dirt area west of Skyline Boulevard and just north of Reids Roost Road. Dosouqi then called for a tow truck to the site and stabbed Pekipaki. Officers arrested Dosouqi after he fled and nearly ran over officers with his car. Evidence showed the crimes were premeditated and that he lured the two men up a dark stretch on Skyline Boulevard, prosecutors said.

 

The sentencing ends a long court case that started in 2019. Court-appointed doctors found Dosouqi incompetent to stand trial in 2019. He spent around six months at Napa State Hospital, after which doctors restored him to competency. His court trial lasted for seven days after starting March 7 of this year. He was sentenced April 15 following statements from the victim’s families.

 

Resource Link

[Rickmxx]

I worked with John for a while at Specialty Towng. This was an absolute horrible act of violence.  The dispatcher that sent John on this call, dropped the ball and did not follow up to make sure he got home safe. Skyline Blvd is on top of the mountains , in the middle of nothing.  When he called to say he could not find customer due to fog, Sandra should have said “cancel and come back” .  She never attempted any follow up.

This is my opinion, and I think the dispatch did a horrible job.  I always clear my calls when done, or back to base.  This was not done here.  I was working that night, and missed this call by a hair.  John was already off work, when he came back to make extra money.  I was on call that evening, but John was sent for some reason.  He was already off work !!!!! This will haunt me till the last day I live.