More Arrests in Parking Lot Stabbing

Three more arrests have been made in connection with a fatal stabbing in a grocery store’s parking lot that may have been caused by an argument over a car passing too close to a group of pedestrians, according to authorities and a survivor of the attack.

The arrests announced Friday bring to four the number of suspects in custody as the alleged attackers of Michael A. Wasney, 28, of San Clemente, who was stabbed to death Wednesday in an encounter at the Albertsons Supermarket at 602 N. El Camino Real.

Jose Martinez Coronado, 21, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home in the 34000 block of Calle Paloma in Capistrano Beach, and an unidentified 16-year-old boy was taken into custody several hours later in the same area, authorities said.

A third suspect, also a 16-year-old boy, was arrested Thursday night while driving a stolen car in San Clemente, said Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Ron Wilkerson. The names of the juveniles were withheld because of their age.

The three males and Stephanie Marie Castro, 19, of San Clemente, who was arrested Thursday, are suspected of attacking Wasney and his girlfriend when the couple got out of their Volvo station wagon to investigate some damage to the car, Wilkerson said.

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Witnesses and Wasney’s girlfriend--who spoke on condition that her identity would not be revealed--said the attackers shouted in anger and broke a window on the car as the woman drove away from Albertsons.

Speaking through her mother, the woman said Thursday that she may have driven too close to her attackers. “She has no idea what they did wrong,” her mother said during a phone interview. “She has no idea what they were so angry about. . . . Maybe they didn’t stop fast enough when these people walked in front of them. Who knows? It’s all senseless.”

As Wasney and the woman were driving away, something smashed through the rear window of the station wagon. When they got out of the car to see what had happened, they were swarmed by four attackers, including at least two wielding knives. Wasney died at the scene, and the woman was briefly hospitalized for a slash wound to her hand.

Wilkerson said 20 investigators worked the case, leading to the quick arrest, but the exact motive for the attack remained vague Friday.

“It’s not real clear,” Wilkerson said. “There’s no indication that [the victims] tried to run these people over, or that there was any previous contact between all these individuals.”

No knives were recovered during the arrests. Wilkerson again asked Friday that any witnesses to the incident call sheriff’s investigators at (714) 647-7055.