Police identify Calif. stabbing suspect

Alleged assailant is a gang member, officials say

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. — The man who killed four people and wounded two others in random stabbings across two Southern California cities is a gang member with a violent criminal record who had served time in prison, authorities said Thursday.

Zachary Castaneda “could have injured or killed many other people” had he not been arrested Wednesday while carrying out attacks and robberies during the two-hour wave of violence that began in Garden Grove, city police Chief Tom Dare said.

Castaneda, 33, was scheduled to be arraigned Friday.

He was taken into custody when he walked out of a convenience store in the neighboring city of Santa Ana, dropping a knife and a gun he had taken from a security guard he had just killed, police said.

“He remained violent with us through the night,” Dare said. “He never told us why he did this.”

Castaneda has a conviction for possession of meth for sale while armed with an assault rifle, Dare said. Investigators were still putting together his entire criminal history, he said. Officials didn’t specify what crimes sent Castaneda to prison or when he was released.

The violence appeared to be random and the only known motive seem 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 him and had once asked police how she could evict her son, he said.

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. There was no indication this was a hate crime, Dare said.

One of the dead was identified by his son as a hard-working immigrant originally from Romania.

Erwin Hauprich said in a telephone interview that his father, Helmuth Hauprich, 62, called him Wednesday afternoon and told him his Garden Grove apartment had been burglarized.

Erwin Hauprich said said his father worked on an assembly line and lived in the complex for years.

Marcio Jose Sanchez The Associated Press Garden Grove Police Chief Tom Dare, center, and public information officer Carl Whitney address the media Thursday next to a booking mug shot of Zachary Castaneda, the suspect in a series of stabbings that left four people dead, in Garden Grove, Calif.