Woman who stabbed police had threatened suicide before

Scott Sonner

Friday, March 26, 1999 | 9:44 a.m.

RENO, Nev. -- A woman who was shot to death by police after stabbing two officers had threatened to kill herself and her daughter last fall, police said.

One officer, Pam Cercek, 41, was stabbed all the way through her shoulder and out her back with the 7-inch long steak knife, Deputy Police Chief Jim Weston said Thursday.

But the officers' wounds were not life threatening and both had been released from the hospital by early Thursday.

The victim, Kaylyn Cotton-Dobie, 34, became irate and attacked the officers in the parking lot about 7:48 p.m. Wednesday when they responded to a call of a disturbance at the Palace Annex Apartments on Grove Street, Weston said.

"Both officers were able to draw their handguns and each fired at Cotton-Dobie," who died at 11:11 p.m. Wednesday during surgery at Washoe Medical Center.

Cotton-Dobie concealed the knife with a 4 1/2 -inch blade in a coat pocket until officer Matt Dellavella, 30, reached out to grab her arm, Weston said.

"She pulled the knife, lunged at him and started flailing with the knife," he said.

Cotton-Dobie then directed her attack on Cercek, repeatedly stabbing her also, he said.

Both received multiple stab sounds, including the "through and through wound" suffered by Cercek, who has been with the force for 20 years, Weston said.

"It went in beneath her collar bone and all the way through out her back. She also was choked around the neck," he said.

Dellavella, a 13-year veteran of the force, was stabbed in the head, the upper chest and the side, Weston said.

"There was quite a bit of damage done in a short amount of time. But most of it is not of the nature to make permanent scars," he said.

Weston said the incident remained under investigation.

All of the witnesses interviewed so far indicate Cotton-Dobie attacked the officers before they fired their weapons, he said.

Investigators checking police records Thursday found that Cercek was among officers dispatched to a Reno shelter home in September 1998 to investigate a complaint that Cotton-Dobie was threatening to kill herself and her 10-year-old daughter.

Two days later, police arranged for her to be sent to Washoe Medical Center for an evaluation based on concerns that she may be a hazard to herself and her child.

She later was referred to the Nevada Mental Health Institute for treatment and her daughter was placed with Social Services.

The officers have been placed on administrative leave pending the completion of the criminal investigation, Weston said.