Man stabs 5 strangers, killing 2, watching Fourth of July fireworks, CA officials say
A man is accused of stabbing five strangers, killing two, as they watched Fourth of July fireworks in a “random attack,” California prosecutors say.
Logan Christopher Kelley, 26, of Redondo Beach, was charged with a number of felonies in relation to the Huntington Beach stabbings, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a July 9 news release.
A group gathered shortly after 11 p.m. on July 4 to watch “fireworks being ignited in the street near the intersection of Pecan Avenue and 16th Street,” a little more than a mile from Huntington Beach Pier, prosecutors said.
Armed with a knife, Kelley approached the group and began stabbing people, according to prosecutors.
Two men — Eric Hodges, 42, and William Collins, 47 — died from their injuries, prosecutors said.
Three more men, two 35-year-old men and one 68-year-old, were left with non-life-threatening injuries, according to prosecutors.
The survivors were taken to a hospital after the stabbings, Huntington Beach police said in a July 5 Facebook post.
Prosecutors said they do not believe Kelley, who had been “drinking and taking hallucinogenic drugs” before the attack, knew anyone in the group.
“A day of celebrating America and all the freedoms we all enjoy turned into deadly chaos at the hands of a stranger,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in the release. “We as Americans should be able to enjoy spending time with our friends and families without worrying about being brutally stabbed in the street in a random attack.”
Several bystanders, “including a 16-year-old boy,” held Kelley until officers arrived, according to prosecutors. As he was being arrested, Kelley spat on one of the officers and used a racial slur, prosecutors said.
Kelly is facing multiple charges, including two special circumstances murder counts, three attempted murder counts and one assault with a deadly weapon count, the district attorney’s office said.
With the special circumstances murder charges, prosecutors said Kelley could face “the death penalty or life without the possibility of parole.”
