Our reporters talked with people who encountered the man suspected of stabbing four people to death in Orange County this week. They said they feel shaken, but lucky.
Zachary Castaneda, 33, is accused of killing four people and wounding two others in a seemingly random stabbing attack at multiple locations.Bakery owner Dona Beltran was outside her shop, charging her phone in her parked car, when a Mercedes pulled up a little after 4 p.m.. A man got out and walked into the store.Thinking he was a customer, she followed him inside. As she entered, she saw the man had walked behind the counter and was rummaging around, attempting to open the cash registers.
The dental office employees locked the door and called 911. Beltran saw the man lug away her cash registers, plop them in his car and drive away.Beltran didn’t know it yet. But the man was in the middle of what authorities describe as a stabbing rampage through Garden Grove and Santa Ana that left four people dead and two injured.Forty minutes later, Castaneda, wearing a black hoodie, walked into Cash N More on Chapman Avenue and robbed a customer, police and witnesses said.
Yesenia Torres, 34, of Santa Ana was the lone employee on duty at the time. She didn’t think much of the man at first as he paced back and forth inside the store.Torres said she had just completed processing a $200 loan for a customer, who took the cash and was walking toward the door when the man approached the woman and said: “This is a robbery. The insurance will pay you back.”“This can’t be happening to me,” the customer said and stood in shock.
Castaneda has an extensive criminal history in Orange County, including convictions for gun-related offenses, resisting a police officer, drug possession and theft. He also has several open cases in Orange County Superior Court related to vandalism, gang activity, and weapon and drug violations. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges, according to court records.
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