‘Stabbed’ man was actually blasted with pressure washer, Folsom police say

Wounds that left a man covered in blood after a dispute at a Folsom shopping center were determined to have been made by a pressure washer, police said.

The man was initially thought to have been stabbed.

The fight between two men took place around 6 a.m. Monday outside a hotel near the Folsom Premium Outlet Mall.

One man had been hired to clean the outside of a building with the pressure washer, of the type that blasts water through a long wand. The other man reportedly got in a dispute with him and tried to take the washer away, police said — and the cleaning employee then apparently let loose on him with the forceful spray.

“I can confirm it was not a stabbing,” Folsom police Officer Matt Stone told TV station KOVR. “The pressure washer, because of the pressure coming from it, looks like it created puncture-type wounds.”

A pressure washer used for medium-duty professional jobs emits water at about 2,000 pounds per square inch. When directed into a tight stream, that is about the same force as the bite of an alligator.

The injured man is expected to recover. Folsom police are investigating whether the cleaning employee was acting in self-defense or if charges are warranted.