Police arrest man in San Diego homeless killings

SAN DIEGO (AP) – A series of attacks on San Diego’s homeless population this week have left two transients dead and a community on edge as police search for one man suspected of the bloodshed.

Anthony Alexander Padgett, 36, was taken into custody in the area of Broadway and H Street in Chula Vista late this morning in connection with the spate of violence, during which two of the victims were set on fire, according to San Diego police. One man ran to help the victim and yanked a flaming towel off of him, saving him from burns, Nisleit said.

In response to a reporter’s question, Nisleit said it was unclear if Padgett, who was raised in Chula Vista, was homeless himself.

All four victims were alone, not sleeping or mingling near other homeless people, when they were attacked. The 53-year-old died before his body was set on fire.

Shortly before 5 a.m. Monday, a second homeless man was found bleeding from stab wounds to his upper body in the Midway district.

The motive for the attacks is unknown.

Investigators had been circulating surveillance video from a convenience store in their hunt for the suspect.

“We have probable cause to arrest Mr. Padgett for these heinous crimes”, Nisleit said. “This killer has targeted some of our community’s most vulnerable citizens while they are asleep”. “Please, please, please – public safety is a shared responsibility”. The man purchased a gas can, a gallon of gasoline and a lighter about 15 minutes before De Nardo’s body was discovered.

He was about to call 911 when another man ran up to the blanket and pulled it away, revealing a man lying beneath it. That’s when the witness first realized there was a victim.

The violence began Sunday, when police found the badly burned remains of Angelo De Nardo between Interstate 5 and train tracks. It is the fourth attack on homeless men in San Diego in four days, two of which resulted in death.

Nisleit said the investigation was in its “very early stages”.

Nisleit said tonight that detectives would be reviewing other recent assaults against the local homeless population to determine whether they might be related to this week’s series of attacks. “We’re working through all these cases again”.

Some homeless men said Wednesday they felt that sleeping among a group of strangers can be as unsafe, in its own way, as sleeping alone.

The wave of attacks has convinced the homeless people in the city to change their sleeping habits. Police said the victims all suffered similar and significant trauma to the upper torsos, but they would not detail the injuries.

Attorney and criminologist Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, told Broadly that attacks on the homeless are significantly underreported. This map shows the location of those attacks (red markers) and the location of other attacks (blue markers) on homeless people this year, according to news reports.