Stabbing spree in California ends with four people dead and two more wounded.

The attacker, Zachary Castaneda. CBS/Garden Grove Police Department.

A stabbing spree in California ends with four people dead and two more people wounded. CBS News. Zachary Castaneda killed four men and wounded two more people before he was arrested. The attacks included robberies and were seemingly at random. Two of the men were killed at his apartment complex while the others included a man pumping gas and a security guard. The security guard was ambushed and Castaneda stole his firearm, but still surrendered to police. There has been no motive released for the crimes but Castaneda was a known gang member. Castaneda and all the men killed were Hispanic. 

My Comment:

For some reason this example of someone running amok isn't getting much attention. Unlike the El Paso attack, this guy didn't release a manifesto and he wasn't white. He also didn't use a gun in his attacks, despite obtaining one by killing a security guard. Even without a gun he was able to kill four people for apparently no reason. 

It's unclear why this man attacked. It seems the first two people he killed were because he got in an argument with them. That's fairly normal, if tragic. The rest though? I guess the guy just snapped. He had no reason to kill these people but did it anyways. He did rob some of the people but others he let alone. It doesn't make much sense. 

It's possible that Castaneda is mentally ill. It's also possible he's perfectly sane and just wanted to kill a bunch of people. I think mental illness is often brought up in these kinds of cases, but I think it's actually fairly uncommon for these people to be mentally ill. And the ones that are, aren't necessarily motivated by their mental illness. 

It was unfortunate that the armed guard was killed. From what it sounds like the attacker followed him and ambushed him from behind, giving him little chance to defend himself. I won't second guess the victim here, he probably didn't have much of a chance. But it is unfortunate that he didn't have much of a chance to defend himself. 

I don't really understand why someone would go on a mass attack like this and then surrender. He still had weapons and could have attacked the cops. The El Paso shooter surrendered too and there have been many other cases like this. It's possible that Castaneda simply didn't know how to use a gun. Handguns are fairly easy to use but if you don't know how to chamber a round or disengage a safety than you can't shoot. 

I also think that this proves that we don't have a gun problem in this country. He have a problem with people running amok. You don't need a gun to do that. You can stab people like Castaneda. You can run people over like ISIS terrorists have. You can even burn down a building like the anime studio attacker in Japan did. The only difference is the method used...