Laundromat Brawl, Carjacking, OC Pursuit Ends With 4 Arrests

SANTA ANA, CA —What began with a fight at a Santa Ana laundromat and a carjacking with police pursuit ended with the arrest of three teens and a young man, who was hospitalized with a stab wound.

A fatal stabbing of a 62-year-old man in Tustin, which was initially thought to be part of the Santa Ana crime spree, was an unrelated attack, police say.

Santa Ana officers were called about 8:30 p.m. Monday about a fight at a laundromat at the 2700 block of N. Grand Ave., in Santa Ana, police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.

"While we were out on Grand, we got a call of a large group of people fighting in the street in the 2600 block of North Eastwood Avenue."

A victim of the attack called his mother, saying he was "in trouble," according to Bertagna. She picked him up and was taking him home.

The combatants at the laundromat followed both the young man and his mother, carjacking her Cadillac Escalade at knifepoint as they neared their Santa Ana home, Bertagna said.

The woman's son disappeared after the carjacking, and police searched for him.

About an hour later, police spotted the stolen Escalade and attempted a traffic stop, but the driver kept going until getting trapped in a cul-de- sac, where the teenagers were taken into custody, Bertagna said.

One of the suspected instigators of the Santa Ana fight at the laundromat walked into OC Global Medical Center to be treated for non-life threatening stab wounds, according to Bertagna.

About the same time, citizens were calling police about a stabbing victim near the scene of the second fight and mistakenly thought it was related, Bertagna said. That victim was stabbed at Prospect Avenue at Norwood Park Place, and later died at an area hospital.

Police have not established a motive for the attack and asked anyone with information helpful to investigators to call Tustin detectives at 714-573-3246 or 714-573-3220.

City News Service contributed to this report.