Police: SoCal stabbing suspect driven by ‘robbery, hate, homicide’
GARDEN GROVE » A gang member who killed four people and wounded two others in random stabbings across two Southern California cities has a violent past, police said Thursday, and court records show he was free on bail for a charge lastmonthof carrying a concealed dagger.
Zachary Castaneda “could have injured or killed many other people” had he not been arrested Wednesday after two hours of robberies and vicious knife attacks, Garden Grove Police Chief Tom DaRe said Thursday.
A blood-covered Castaneda was taken into custodywhenhewalked out of a convenience store in neighboring Santa Ana, dropping a knife and gun he had taken from a security guard he had just killed, police said.
Castaneda was kept in restraints as detectives tried to interview him.
“He remained violentwith us through the night,” DaRe said. “He never told us why he did this.”
Castaneda’s long criminal record includes prison stints for possession of methamphetamine for sale while armed with an assault rifle and car theft.
His arrest last month on charges of having a concealed dagger and drug charges came while he was on bail for his June arrest on charges of street gang vandalism.
The violence appeared to be random and the only known motive seems to be “robbery, hate, homicide,” Garden Grove police Lt. Carl Whitney told reporters.
Whitney said police had previously gone to Castaneda’s Garden Grove apartment to deal with a child custody issue. The suspect’s mother had been living with himand had once asked police how she could evict her son, he said.
Court records show his wife, Yessica Rodriguez, sought a restraining order last year after she said Castaneda threw a beer can at her 16-year- old daughter. She said she also sought an order against him in 2009 when he broke her armduring a fight.
Rodriguez filed for divorce earlier this year, court records show, and has custody of two sons, ages 7 and 12.
It wasn’t immediately known if Castaneda, 33, had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf for the current allegations. Public defenders who previously represented him did not immediately return messages seeking comment. He is scheduled to be arraigned today. The attacker and four of the victims were described as Hispanic, while two victims were described as white, police said in a statement. Initially, all had been described as Hispanic.
Therewasno indicationthiswas a hate crime, DaRe said.
The two people who were wounded were expected to survive.
The brutal and puzzling attacks came just days after a pair of mass shootings in Texas and Ohio left 31 people dead and stunned the nation.