A woman keeps her belongings in shopping carts near an underpass where homeless people sleep Wednesday, July 6, 2016, in San Diego. Another San Diego homeless man was seriously injured early Wednesday by an attacker police say struck while he was asleep and tried to set him on fire, the latest in a spate of attacks on transients that have left two dead. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi) (The Associated Press)
SAN DIEGO – The Latest on attacks on homeless men in San Diego (all times local):
6:50 p.m.
Police say they've arrested a man on suspicion of murder and other charges in attacks on four homeless men in four days in San Diego. The attacks left two men dead and two seriously injured.
Capt. David Nisleit said at a news conference that 36-year-old Anthony Alexander Padgett was taken into custody Thursday morning and will be booked Thursday night as the sole suspect in the attacks.
Nisleit said a tip led investigators to Padgett, who lives in Chula Vista in the San Diego area. He gave no further details on the man.
Investigators had been circulating surveillance video from a convenience store in their hunt for the suspect.
Police declined to speculate on a motive. All four victims suffered significant trauma to the upper torso, though police refused to elaborate on the nature of the injuries.
Police say the last three victims were attacked while sleeping alone.
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1 a.m.
San Diego's homeless population is on edge after four attacks on transients in four days, two of them fatal.
Police are seeking someone they now identify as the sole suspect, a man seen on convenience store surveillance video wearing a cap, jacket and backpack.
In the latest of the attacks, a 23-year-old man was seriously injured Wednesday and is not expected to survive his upper-body injuries after being attacked.
A news release said the latest victim was set on fire, though Capt. David Nisleit said earlier that a witness pulled away a burning cloth that the attacker had placed on the victim before fleeing.
As in previous attacks the victim was sleeping in the early morning hours when the assailant approached.
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