Police: Bloody stabbing suspect driven by ‘hate, homicide’

GARDEN GROVE (AP) — 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 last month of 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 custody when he walked 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 violent with 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 meth for sale while armed with an assault rifle and car theft.

He served about two years of a four-year sentence and was released on probation in January 2016, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

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.

Castaneda was convicted in 2009 of spousal abuse and paroled after serving about a year in prison, corrections officials said.

He was released from parole in that case in 2014.

The violence Wednesday appeared to be random and the only known motive seems to be “robbery, hate, homicide,” Garden Grove police Lt. Carl Whitney told reporters.