Dead perpetrator in Los Osos hatchet attack identified

September 7, 2015

crime sceneThe San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office has identified the man who attacked a woman with a hatchet and then committed suicide as Kelly Neal Turnpin, a 25-year-old Los Osos resident.

On Friday evening, Turnpin attacked a 58-year-old woman with a hatchet at a home in the 400 block of Woodland Drive. The woman suffered injuries, but she escaped and survived.

When sheriff’s deputies arrived at the home, they found Turnpin dead in the backyard with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Turpin and the woman had been sharing the Woodland Drive home, according to the sheriff’s office.

The woman recently asked Turnpin to move out of the house, a sheriff’s office news release states.

During the attack, the woman suffered multiple traumatic injuries. She managed to escape to a neighbor’s home and was then transported to the hospital by an ambulance.

The woman was still receiving treatment in the hospital Saturday evening.

The sheriff’s office initially stated the man used an ax to attack her. An updated press release said the weapon was a hatchet.


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This is life in the US when you are victimized. You come home from the hospital with bandaged wounds and a pamphlet that tells you the signs and symptoms to watch out for that demonstrate you are developing PTSD. You sometimes have a huge mess to clean up–and never will feel the same in your home again (or possibly never feel safe in the world again). Your friends and neighbors will forget about this a LOT faster than you do–moving on with their lives while you still feel all of it. And, somehow, life goes on.


We need ax and hatchet control legislation enacted immediately!


Tragedies like this will not cease until we enact sensible legislation to regulate axes.


Really? A vicious assault and a death in our community, and this is what you come up with? A snide 2nd Amendment smirk? My condolences to any and all friends and family members.


If axes weren’t available at every hardware store and camping supply, maybe half of this tragedy could have been avoided.