Butcher knives in both hands, man chases woman onto football field, California cops say

A 9-year-old boy warming up for a flag football game Friday evening spotted his father coming up behind his mother with a butcher knife in each hand, prosecutors say.

He alerted his mother, who ran onto the football field in Garden Grove, California, “screaming for help,” police said in a news release. A nearby youth coach sprang into action.

“I didn’t know how many people could be injured, how many kids can get hurt,” Robert Navarrete told KABC.

The coach tackled and disarmed the man with the help of an off-duty Garden Grove police officer and other parents, police said.

Navarrete described the knives as being “like the ones you would use for carving a turkey,” KABC reported.

Russell Matthew Husges, 43, of Anaheim, has been charged with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm, disobeying a domestic relations court order, and child abuse and endangerment, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said.

The 40-year-old woman had been granted a family court order against her estranged husband a few weeks earlier, prosecutors said.

“The act itself is horrific, but to attempt to carry out this kind of violence in front of innocent children and their parents is the stuff of nightmares,” said District Attorney Todd Spitzer.

Several youth sports games were underway at the Chapman Sports Complex at the time of the 7:05 p.m. incident, police reported.

“I’m sure it’s something that’s going to haunt them for some time,” Navarette told KABC about children who witnessed the attack. He said he had noticed Husges earlier at the complex but said the man seemed “out of it” with a blank expression.

This story was originally published May 19, 2021 at 8:42 AM with the headline "Butcher knives in both hands, man chases woman onto football field, California cops say."