A Poway couple were asleep in bed when a bullet fired through the wall of their apartment struck the 38-year-old husband, killing him, early Saturday.

Christine Walker said she rushed her husband, Michael Walker, to Pomerado Hospital and he died there a short time later.

Hospital staff notified the Sheriff’s Department of the shooting at 2:50 a.m., and the investigation led to the Sofi Poway apartments on Midland Road just north of Poway Road.

Investigators later arrested Manuula Save, 20, on suspicion of murder, sheriff’s homicide Lt. Chad Boudreau said.


“I don’t want that man to ever walk the streets again,” Christine Walker said of the shooting suspect. “He took away one of the most important people in my life.

“Michael was the sweetest, most gentle man. The most loving husband anybody could have.”

She said they were in bed, asleep, when she woke to the sounds of some thumping around in the next door apartment. Then she heard a “bang” and her husband cried out in pain. He had been shot in the abdomen.

“I didn’t really know what happened,” she said. “We heard noise, and he was bleeding. I wanted to call 911 but he was like, ‘No, no, I’m fine.’ I don’t think he knew what had transpired. I raced him to the emergency room.


“Unfortunately, they took him in and he crashed right away.”

She said it was a long time before deputies spoke with her, and she told them there was a hole in their bedroom wall. Much later, she said, she was told someone was in custody.

Boudreau said in a statement that detectives questioned three people who were in the neighboring apartment, then Save was arrested.

“I have no idea who this person is,” Walker said. “I don’t know if I’d know him if I saw him.”


She said other neighbors heard fighting from the apartment where Save was. Boudreau did not say if Save lived in the unit.

Walker said her husband worked at Jerome’s furniture store and that they had been married for two and a half years.

“He love Philadelphia teams. He was a huge fanatic, since he was a kid, but he was from here. And I’m from Philadelphia,” she said. “When we met, it was kismet. He was a wonderful man.”

Staff writer Kristina Davis contributed to this report.