Family Fight in Tustin Escalates Into Stabbing : Violence: Man is in critical condition following knife attack by grandfather.

A 26-year-old man was stabbed repeatedly by his grandfather in the chest and back during a violent argument in their home Wednesday, police said.

Robert Gardner, 67, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and placed in Orange County Jail. His grandson, Mark Anthony Gardner, was in critical condition at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, said Tustin police spokeswoman Gail Mores.

Family members said that the two men have a long history of violence toward each other and that the animosity had been building for several days.

“They have been fighting all this week,” 23-year-old Keesha Gardner said of her brother and grandfather. “Yesterday, they were fighting over some ham. Any little thing would set them off.”

“This has been going on for 10 years or so,” she said. “They agitate each other. They have had loads of fights, and there has been a lot of threats, but a weapon has never been used before. That’s why we are all shocked.”

Keesha Gardner said her older brother had been living “on and off” with the nine other family members who share the three-bedroom home on Myrtle Avenue, including Robert Gardner’s daughter, who is Mark Gardner’s mother.

“When Mark is living here, there’s a fight every day,” Keesha Gardner said. “He creates a very hostile and violent atmosphere.”

A 14-year-old relative who witnessed the stabbing in the grandfather’s bedroom said that she and a family friend tried to break up the fight between the two men. She said her cousin Mark Gardner was punching their grandfather in the face before the older man stabbed him with a steak knife from the kitchen.

She said that after the stabbing, Mark Gardner stumbled from the bedroom to the living room and said that he couldn’t breathe. The teen-ager called police and paramedics. She said her grandfather sat in his bedroom watching television until police arrived and arrested him without incident.

“We’re sorry it happened like this,” Keesha Gardner said. “But in a way, we’re glad it’s over. We have all been on edge.”