A homeless man allegedly stabbed to death a father and his 22-year-old daughter in Palmdale, California, on Thursday.
As Ken Evans, 54, and McKenna Evans, worked outside a Kohls just north of Los Angeles, fixing their sedan, the man allegedly attacked them with no prior warning or reason, the Los Angeles Times reported. Los Angeles Police Department arrested a man in connection with the stabbings, which left the daughter dead at the scene. Her father died later after being taken to a local area hospital.
McKenna’s boyfriend, Jesse Mercado, said he rushed out of the Kohl’s shopping center “to see if she was safe. She wasn’t answering my calls. But when I got there, everything was covered with police tape. I was more and more panicked. It’s shattering to know the person I love so much is not here.”
According to family members, Ken Evans and his 22-year-old daughter McKenna Evans were stabbed to death in the parking of a Palmdale shopping center yesterday. As detectives search for a motive, family is hoping justice is served. https://t.co/WfkkUrVeTq
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) October 29, 2022
Elizabeth Evans, the wife and mother of Ken and McKenna, told KTLA her daughter was “an absolute beacon … She didn’t know a stranger. Everybody became her best friend.” She believes the homeless man who killed her family was on drugs, and that her husband attempted to shield their daughter when they were repeatedly stabbed. (RELATED: Gavin Newsom Admits He’s Oblivious To LA District Attorney’s Work As Public Sounds Alarm On Crime Spike)
Los Angeles is one of many U.S. cities experiencing recording-breaking rises in homicides and other violent crimes in 2022. Despite these rises, parts of Los Angeles, such as West Hollywood, voted this year to defund their local police department.