ANAHEIM : Man Whom Officer Shot Is Still Critical

A man who was shot several times by a police officer Saturday night after he allegedly threatened her with a machete remained in critical condition Sunday night, officials said.

Angel Luis Dinza, 40, who was shot in the upper body, was clinging to life at UCI Medical Center in Orange, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Witnesses told police that Dinza, shortly before he was shot, had struck neighbor Randolph Eugene Woodman, 37, who was in critical condition Sunday night at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana with a six-inch machete wound to the head.

Police and tenants at the Vista Park Apartments, a 400-unit complex where Dinza and his family live, said the officer ordered the man to drop his weapon and to halt as he moved toward her but to no avail.

Witnesses said Dinza ran down the street about 8 p.m. Saturday yelling for his wife and children and attacking neighbors and their cars with his machete.

Manuel Chavez, who lives in an apartment unit below Dinza, at 907 Bluejay Lane, said he was in front of his apartment when his neighbor ran toward him.

“This guy just came around and was swinging a big knife in the air,” said Chavez, 28. “He says he gives me 30 seconds to run or he will kill me, or something like that.”

Chavez said he ran into his house and seconds later, looked out the window and saw Dinza attacking his car. Dinza then turned the machete towards his own van, which was parked in the next car port, and smashed all the windows.

Sunday morning, as children in the apartment complex milled around the green Dodge van, the apartment manager wedged a note in Dinza’s front door, informing his wife that the van with its jagged windows will be towed away for children’s safety.

After he attacked the van, the man staggered down the street, waving his machete. He came upon Woodman who was standing on the sidewalk and struck him in the head, according to witnesses said. Woodman picked himself up and ran to his home where he called police.

The man then attacked a van parked on the street, stabbing its windows, witnesses said. When Michael Smith, the owner of the van, confronted the attacker, he was chased into his home.

“He swung at me a couple of times . . . mumbling, ‘Do you know? Do you know?’ ” Smith said.

Dinza allegedly continued on his rampage and stabbed at an unoccupied car parked on the street. At this point, the first police car arrived, witnesses said.

The officer “warned him several times to stop or that she was going to have to shoot,” said a neighbor who asked that she not be identified. “He just came toward her and said, ‘Fine, shoot,’ ” and continued to advance.

Anaheim detectives and investigators from the Orange County district attorney’s office are investigating the shooting, police said.