Garden Grove Man Arrested in Stabbings that Injure 5 : Crime: Police search for a motive for the fight, which began as a Euclid Street restaurant bar was closing.

A 20-year-old Garden Grove man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in stabbings outside a restaurant that left one man critically wounded and four others injured early Thursday, authorities said.

Detectives arrested Thomas Simons, 20, at his Lemonwood Lane home after he was released from AMI Medical Center of Garden Grove, where he had been treated for minor stab wounds, Garden Grove Police Lt. John Woods said.

Simons was arrested in the stabbing of Wesley F. Johnson, 23, of Garden Grove, who was in critical but stable condition with multiple stab wounds at the Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center on Thursday night. Three others, besides Simons, were released from area hospitals after being treated for stab wounds and other injuries received during a scuffle in parking lot of the Black Angus restaurant in the 12000 block of Euclid Street.

Woods said police are trying to determine a motive for the fight, which started about 1:40 a.m. as the restaurant bar was closing.

Michael P. Crusinberry, 30, of Garden Grove, said he was stabbed five times in the legs as he tried to break up a fight between two men in the parking lot.

“I kind of broke it up, and as I was walking to my car, it started up again,” he said. “When I tried to break it up a second time, I got stabbed by one of the men. He cut me three times in my right leg and twice in my left leg. I never saw the knife. I didn’t know I was cut until another customer yelled, “Hey, you’re bleeding.”

Crusinberry was treated at Garden Grove Medical Center and later released.

Also wounded was John Crooks, 23, of Granada Hills, who was treated for minor slash wounds, and James Kunzmann, 21, of Stanton, who suffered a black eye, police said.

Crusinberry said he had gone with Kunzmann and two other friends to the restaurant for a few drinks. He said he knew only Kunzmann, not the other wounded men.

“We just had a few drinks, danced a little and decided to leave,” Crusinberry said. “We were not looking for any trouble.”

Kunzmann said he was struck by an unknown attacker as soon as he left the restaurant.

“Someone ran up to me and hit me--bang!--in my eye,” he said. “I didn’t have time to see who did it or to ask why? I was just floored.”

Crusinberry said the incident scuttled his Thanksgiving Day plans to have dinner with his sister in Huntington Beach.

“I’m stuck at home now,” he said. “My sister brought me some food, but it’s not the same. Who wants to be stuck in bed with five holes in your leg on Thanksgiving Day?”