A California man killed four people and wounded two more in a rampage fuelled by “robbery, hate and homicide”, according to police.
The 33-year-old was arrested outside a 7-Eleven store in Orange County two hours after he began his deadly assault.
Moments before he was taken into custody, the suspect dropped a knife and a gun that he had taken from a security guard before fatally stabbing him, police said.
The violence appeared to be random and the only known motives were “robbery, hate, homicide,” Garden Grove police Lt Carl Whitney said at a news conference.
“We know this guy was full of anger and he harmed a lot of people tonight,” Lt Whitney said.
The man has not yet been identified.
The attacks took place over about two hours in Garden Grove and neighbouring Santa Ana, southeast of Los Angeles.
Lt Whitney said police first answered a burglary report at an apartment where no one was hurt, before the man carried out violent robberies across the towns.
He robbed a bakery and an insurance business before stabbing a woman several times in the back, according to the police spokesman. The victim is expected to survive.
Police were then called back to the first apartment complex – where the suspect lived – where they found two men had been stabbed.
One died on a balcony and another died at a hospital.
The suspect also robbed a cash conversion business and a petrol station where a man was slashed so badly that his nose was nearly severed, Lt Whitney said.
The suspect’s silver Mercedes was tracked to the parking lot of the 7-Eleven store in Santa Ana where the man fatally stabbed a security guard.
He also killed an employee of a nearby Subway sandwich shop.
