Sang van Phan, a 47-year-old homeless man, apparently stabbed another homeless man several times in the back, head and neck outside of a Westminster supermarket early on Saturday morning.
The incident occurred before 9 a.m. at the Stater Brothers located at 8522 Westminster Blvd.
The Westminster Police Department’s Deputy Chief, Cameron Knauerhaze, told the press that the vicitm had stumbled into the store, bleeding, after the attack.
A witness told the responding police officers that Phan was at a nearby laundromat. They arrested him when they found him in the laundromat.
The police officers also found a knife at the scene of the stabbing.
Phan was arrested and booked for attempted murder.
The police did not identify the name of the victim who is recovering in a local hospital and is expected to survive.
The police believe that Phan attacked the victim over an unspecified territorial dispute.
Phan was involved in a similar fight over territory near the store on Jan. 29, when he got into a fight with an elderly homeless man. Phan was arrested then too after he stabbed that man.
The police indicated that Phan had stabbed that man because he was there.
Incredibly Phan was not charged in that stabbing incident. He was held at the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange until Feb. 2, when he was released.
The Westminster Police Dept. reported that their officers have repeatedly encountered Phan over the last 10 years or so.
The Orange County District Attorney’s office has not yet explained why Phan was not charged for the attack in January. It is also uncertain if Phan will be charged this time for his second such attack.
