Man accused of attempting to murder wife with axe in Centennial office

CENTENNIAL, Colo. — A woman remains alive after the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office says her husband attacked her with an axe when she arrived at work Tuesday morning. 

Arapahoe County deputies responded to a Centennial parking lot and found a woman with “massive lacerations on both calves,” who was also “stabbed in the neck and chest,” a probable cause statement reads. 

She also suffered “an extreme brain bleed, lacerations, and a skull fracture,” according to the statement.

Despite going in and out of consciousness, the statement says the woman told deputies her husband attacked her. The victim’s employer asked not to be identified, on behalf of the family’s wishes.

The suspect was no longer on the scene when deputies arrived and businesses went into lockdown, another owner told 9NEWS Investigates.  

About two hours later in Aurora, deputies arrested 73-year-old Mebrahtu Weldekidan. He was sitting in his car, and deputies say in the front seat he had “an axe covered in blood.”

Weldekidan has no prior criminal record, according to the probable cause statement. 

Deputies say Weldekidan told them he planned the attack, waiting for her to arrive at work, parked behind her, and hit her with an ax repeatedly.

He “showed no remorse about attacking (her) with an axe and made a statement that he would feel awful if (she) were to survive his attack,” the probable cause statement reads.

A deputy provided life-saving measures at the scene, enabling her to make it to the hospital, an Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson told 9NEWS Investigates, though the spokesperson did not know her long-term prognosis.

In court this week, a family member expressed grave concerns for her own safety if Weldekidan gets out of jail before trial. The judge ordered him to be held on a $1,000,000 bond.