Updated at 2 p.m. June 23, 2015
A 24-year-old man named as a person of interest in the killings of his “common law” wife and their 6-month-old son in Anaheim was detained early Tuesday in Fountain Valley.
Kwame Carpenter was taken into custody after a security guard at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital saw a suspect and car matching the description of the wanted man and his vehicle about 3:30 a.m. and notified a Santa Ana police officer, who was at the hospital on an unrelated matter, said Fountain Valley police Lt. Rob Sweaza.
“The Santa Ana officer, in conjunction with Fountain Valley officers, went to the location on the southeast portion of the hospital campus and contacted Carpenter, who was inside his parked 2001 Lincoln Town Car,” Sweaza said.
“When officers attempted to take Carpenter into custody, he refused to surrender and drove his car into a Santa Ana police car, damaging it.”
Carpenter then allegedly crashed the Lincoln into another vehicle and kept going.
“At that point a Fountain Valley officer fired two rounds at Carpenter as he fled the scene in his car,” Sweaza said. “No one was injured as a result of the shooting.”
Officers chased the car north on Euclid Street, where Carpenter abandoned the vehicle and ran into Mile Square Park “and into a small lake on the northeast corner of the park,” Sweaza said.
A Fountain Valley officer’s police dog followed Carpenter into the lake and bit the suspect, who was then taken into custody, Sweaza said.
Carpenter was being treated at an area hospital for the dog bite and was to be questioned later Tuesday afternoon upon being cleared by physicians, said Anaheim police Lt. Eric Trapp.
The attack on the mother and child occurred in an apartment at 2648 W. Ball Road, Trapp said. Police were dispatched to the location at 12:10 p.m. Monday on a “felony assault in progress” call, Trapp said.
The victims, whose names were not immediately released, reportedly were stabbed, but investigators have not confirmed how they died.
Carpenter pleaded guilty along with a co-defendant in an identity theft case in October 2013. He admitted four counts of using another’s credit card and one count of receiving stolen property, all misdemeanors, and was sentenced to three years of informal probation and 56 days of public service, according to court records.
—City News Service