NEWPORT BEACH : Tenant Under Siege in Stabbing Arrested

A 34-year-old Newport Beach man who kept a SWAT team at the ready for three hours at the Park Newport apartment complex was captured by police when he tried to flee, police said.

Randy Saltzman, who lives in the sprawling 1,300-apartment complex, was subdued by police with the help of a bystander about 3 p.m. after he dropped down from a balcony of the four-story building and tried to dash away naked, Police Sgt. Andy Gonis said. Police had surrounded the building at 11:30 a.m. after Saltzman allegedly stabbed an unidentified man during a fight inside the apartment, Gonis said.

The man, who was in the apartment with an unidentified woman and Saltzman, was treated for wounds to his upper body and not hurt seriously, Gonis said. The woman left with the injured man and was not hurt.

There was no response when police knocked on the locked apartment door to question Saltzman, so several adjoining apartments were evacuated and the SWAT team was called to surround the area, Gonis said. After hearing unintelligible noises from the apartment, police eventually knocked down the barricaded door, and Saltzman fled out a rear sliding glass door, Gonis said.

Mike Wolivar, 32, a bystander who tripped Saltzman, said he “turned around and this naked guy came running at me. The police were yelling ‘Stop, Stop,’ and I got down in a stance, put my foot out and grabbed his arm. He had some kind of grease on him and he was very slippery.”

Saltzman is also a suspect in an automobile theft and has an outstanding, out-of-state warrant for violation of probation on a rape case, Gonis said.