San Diego Police document the scene where a homeless man was attacked Friday in downtown San Diego.
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Police launched a massive manhunt which appeared to end last Friday with the arrest of Anthony Alexander Padgett, a transient with a violent record, only for police to release him on Monday without charge.
Guerrero, a Coronado native who most recently has lived in downtown San Diego, was booked into county jail on suspicion of three counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and two counts of arson.
Relatives say a father and son from the Austin area are among the victims of the deadly truck attack in Nice. The arrest came approximately an hour after the fifth homeless man was attacked. Friday’s attack would be the fifth in the series that began July 3.
Shortly before 4 a.m., someone struck a man with an unknown object in the vicinity of 13th and A streets, then rode away on a bicycle.
That work was still in progress as of Thursday, Nisleit said.
Two Harbor police officers heard screams around 4:30 a.m., found the latest victim in the downtown area and alerted San Diego police officers. Nisleit told The San Diego Union-Tribune that it’s his understanding the man resembles the suspect whose image was caught on a convenience store surveillance video after the first killing July 3. Police have not determined a motive and didn’t say if Guerrero had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. Following the arrest of Guerrero, Zimmerman said she believed that he “The suspect responsible for these vicious crimes”.
Friday’s incident fit the characteristics of the four other attacks involving men usually sleeping on the street who suffered severe trauma to their upper body.
Arizona police announced Friday the discovery of improvised bombs and several pounds of explosives in the home and auto of a man who traveled to a quiet Nevada town and set off bombs that killed him and showered the. The 53-year-old victim was beaten to death before his body was burned, police said.
San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman, center, speaks during a news conference, flanked by San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, left, and police Captain David Nisleitand, right, Friday, July 15, 2016, in San Diego.
The body of a homeless man was found in flames in Bay Park on the morning of July 3.
The next day another homeless man, Manuel Mason, 61, suffered severe injuries to his torso.
Composite sketch by San Diego Police artist of the suspect in the murders of three homeless men.
Two hours later, police found 41-year-old Shawn Longley bleeding from his upper-torso.
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The more than a dozen attacks on homeless people in San Diego over the last three weeks has attracted the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who helped create a profile of the homeless serial killer. Investigators said a towel was ignited on top of the critically wounded man, identified as 23-year-old Dionicio Derek Vahidy.
