HUNTINGTON BEACH : Stare-Down Led to Knifing, Report Says

A chance encounter by strangers, followed by a stare-down and angry words, led to the stabbing of a student in the Edison High School parking lot earlier this week, according to a Huntington Beach police report made available Friday.

Dean Navarro, a 17-year-old Edison student, was crossing the parking lot Wednesday when he and a friend walked around a Nissan ZX that was carrying four people, witnesses told police.

Navarro then exchanged words with the occupants on the driver’s side, several of whom accused him of “mad-dogging” them, or attempting to stare them down.

A challenge was issued, and the four people in the car got out and attacked Navarro, who tried to fight back, witnesses told police.

Navarro went down and was stabbed several times before the attackers returned to their car and fled, the police report said.

Navarro, who was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, told police that he did not know any of the people in the car, according to the report.

Navarro was transferred Friday to Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center.

Four youths were arrested within minutes. They were: Minh Van Nguyen, 19, and Khai Quang Do, 20, both of Westminster; Antoine Quan Nguyen, 22, of Anaheim; and a 15-year-old juvenile from Garden Grove.

All were identified by eyewitnesses from the school shortly after their arrest, the report said.

On Friday, prosecutors charged Antoine Quan Nguyen with attempted murder and inflicting great bodily injury.

At the time of his arrest, according to the police report, he was on parole for a 1992 conviction for second-degree burglary in Los Angeles.

Minh Van Nguyen and Khai Quang Do were charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

Do, who told police that he was driving the car, said he and his friends had come to the campus to look for a friend.

Do’s attorney, Julian W. Bailey, said the charges were excessive, in light of what police said took place.

Attorneys for the three men asked that arraignment for the trio be postponed until April 2, and Orange County Municipal Judge Brett London set bail for each at $250,000.