Newport/Costa Mesa/Irvine : COSTA MESA : Man Critically Wounded in Stabbing at Housing Complex

A 30-year-old man was critically wounded when he was stabbed by an acquaintance early Tuesday morning at a low-income housing complex in Costa Mesa, police said.

Peter Pawel Kawalko of Costa Mesa was stabbed in his left shoulder, abdomen and right arm, police said. Police arrested Tomasz Zbigniew Budniak, 33, on suspicion of attempted murder.

Budniak is a resident of the Costa Mesa Village complex, 2450 Newport Blvd., where the stabbing took place.

After the stabbing, Budniak ran out of his room screaming for paramedics, fellow residents said. Residents said he also pulled the fire alarm, apparently in an effort to summon emergency help faster.

“I thought it was my smoke detector,” said Tom Johnson, 51, a resident who was getting ready for bed when the alarm went off around 1 a.m. “Just as I came out, this guy comes running out over to the bushes. He ran over (to the gate) when police came.”

Employees at the complex declined to comment on the incident.

Police said when they arrived, they found Budniak armed with a knife and covered with blood. Kawalko was found in one of the rooms, Capt. Tom Lazar said.

Kawalko was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he was in critical condition.

Kawalko was visiting Budniak when the two got into an quarrel, Lazar said. He declined tosay what the argument was about.

The Costa Mesa Village is a transformed Travelodge Motel with 96 units. It is the first “single-room occupancy” complex in Orange County that provides housing for single people making less than $20,000 a year, said Merrill Butler, one of the complex’s developers.

This is the first violent incident since the complex’s development in late 1992, Butler said.