A homeless man was arrested after apparently stabbing another homeless man multiple times in the back, head and neck outside a supermarket in Westminster early Saturday, police said.
Sang Van Phan, 47, described as homeless but living in Westminster for years, attacked another man in the parking lot of the grocery store at 8522 Westminster Boulevard before 9 a.m. on Saturday, police said.
“The victim sort of stumbled in to the store bleeding,” said Westminster Deputy Chief Cameron Knauerhaze.
A witness led arriving officers to a laundromat nearby, where they found Phan inside.
A knife was found at the scene of the stabbing, police said, and Phan was arrested and booked for attempted murder.
The victim, who was not identified Sunday, was recovering in a hospital and expected to survive, Knauerhaze said. The deputy chief said police believe Phan attacked the victim over an unspecified territorial dispute.
Phan was arrested just a few weeks ago for what police believe was a similar fight over territory near the store. On Jan. 29, Phan got into another fight with an elderly homeless man, which ended with the man being stabbed.
“It was an argument over…the other homeless man being there,” Knauerhaze said. “And then the next thing that victim knew he was being stabbed by our suspect.”
Phan was not charged in that incident, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Department booking records. He was held at the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange until Feb. 2, when he was released.
Knauerhaze said Westminster officers who patrol the area where the stabbing occurred have repeatedly encountered Phan over the last 10 years or so.
The address given by police corresponds to a Stater Bros. grocery store on Westminster Boulevard.
The Orange County District Attorney’s office was not immediately available for comment Sunday about either the Jan. 29 suspected stabbing or the one on Saturday.
Source: Orange County Register
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