HOLLYWOOD : Off-Duty Officer Held in Stabbing of Roommate

An off-duty Orange police sergeant was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after he allegedly stabbed his roommate during an argument at their Hollywood apartment, authorities said Monday.

Sgt. Paul S. Gibbs, 42, was arrested Sunday in the assault on William Ray, 32, Los Angeles police said. Ray was in stable condition at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after surgery for a punctured lung and other stab wounds to the upper body.

After his arrest, Gibbs, an 18-year police veteran, was placed on paid administrative leave from his job of helping supervise the Orange Police Department’s motorcycle patrol officers. He was booked into the jail ward at County-USC Medical Center, where he, too, was in stable condition, a hospital spokesman said.

Gibbs told detectives that Ray stabbed him first in the arm, and that he retaliated with his own knife during the incident in their apartment on Selma Avenue, according to a police report. “They just apparently have been roommates for some time, and we’re not really sure what led to the violence,” Detective Mike McDonagh said.