California prosecutor: SWAT team saved 4th slasher victim

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When Ryan Scott Blinston was arrested last year, authorities say he was trying to smash in a door with a hatchet to finish killing a man whose throat he had slashed. A prosecutor says the arrival of a SWAT team to make the arrest saved the man. Officials say he would have become the fourth victim of a man they call a serial killer. Blinston was charged this week with killing three women last year in Butte and Tehama counties, north of Sacramento. He didn’t enter a plea at his arraignment Thursday. Authorities say they have no motive for the attacks.