Knifeman follows woman home in a panda mask and stabs her babysitter say police

Harrowing video appears to show suspect Joshua Cates attacking woman outside her home in Oregon

(Eugene Police Department)

A knifeman wearing a sinister panda mask followed a woman home and stabbed her babysitter, police say.

Harrowing video captured the incident outside the unidentified woman’s home in Eugene, Oregon, on Friday evening.

Police said suspect Joshua William Cates, who was wearing a bloody Halloween mask, had followed the woman in her car before attacking her when she parked and propped the door open to get out.

Home surveillance footage shows the pair struggling on the ground by the car before the woman’s babysitter, an unnamed 45-year-old man, came out to help her.

The babysitter was pulling Mr Cates off of the woman when he was stabbed, police said. The wound was not life-threatening.

(Eugene Police Department)

Mr Cates fled the scene, leaving behind his mask. The babysitter and a neighbour attempted to follow him before returning home when they noticed the stab wound.

Mr Cates, 31, was apprehended hours later in the backseat of an acquaintance’s car. Police said he was identified by evidence left at the scene of the assault.

He was arrested and booked into Lane County Jail on charges of first-degree robbery, second-degree assault and coercion, KEZI reported.

It is not known whether Mr Cates has been assigned a lawyer or given an opportunity to enter a plea.