SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — A Sacramento County man is recovering after being stabbed multiple times Friday morning in the North Highlands area while trying to break up a fight.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office says it happened round 7 a.m. outside the shopping center at Watt Towne Center. Deputies say two people tried to break up a fight between a grocery store employee and a homeless man, but instead the homeless man stabbed one of the good Samaritan multiple times.
The man says he was dropping his daughter off at work when he saw things unfold.
“I am looking through my window, I see this guy go across to the Grocery Outlet employee and the guy had been living on the property,” said the Good Samaritan. “He drove across and immediately started assaulting the Grocery Outlet employee.”
The sheriff's office says the employee asked the homeless man to leave the parking lot, but a fight ensued. That's when two men went to help, but the homeless man, identified by officials as Aaron Gonzales, attacked one of them.
“All I could do is react to try to protect my body organs and stuff,” said the good Samaritan, who did not want to be identified due to fearing for his safety.
He says he had just seconds to react as he suffered stab wounds above his eye, inside his right bicep, back of the neck and upper back.
After a four hour stay in the hospital, the victim says he's thankful to be alive and is glad it wasn't worse.
“I am feeling good,” he said. "I am really sore, my eyeballs watering and stuff like that because anytime you get hit in the in the face, you get a black eye. But I am doing good. I am healing up; I can feel my wounds actually healing.”
He's hoping elected leaders do more to stop this from happening to someone else.
“This can happen to anybody,” he said. “The state and county need to step up and do something. The state needs open up some programs, even the federal government, they cannot keep kicking the can down the road.”
Gonzales is facing a felony assault with a deadly weapon charge. He is being held at the Sacramento County Jail on a $50,000 bail. He will make his first court appearance May 21.
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