OCEANSIDE — An Oceanside man accused in a stabbing that led to a
roughly six-hour standoff overnight in Oceanside’s Mira Costa neighborhood
was arrested this morning and booked on suspicion of attempted murder and
assault with a deadly weapon, police said.
Police did not say what led up to the altercation between the victim
and the 36-year-old suspect, later identified as Joseph Paul Sustaita, around
10:30 p.m. Wednesday near Vista Way and Snead Drive, just north of state Route
78 near the El Camino Country Club. But 10News reported that the confrontation
began when the victim and another man confronted the suspect while he was
fighting with a woman, possibly his girlfriend.
Oceanside police spokesman Tom Bussey said that when officers arrived,
Sustaita was gone. The victim, whose name was withheld, suffered several
stab wounds and was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, where he
was in stable condition this morning, Bussey said.
A dog from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department tracked Sustaita
to his mother’s apartment in the 3200 block of Paseo De Laura, about a block
from the stabbing scene, Bussey said. When officers attempted to contact him
there, Sustaita allegedly refused to answer the door, prompting a SWAT team
response.
Detectives obtained a search warrant that the SWAT team served around
5 a.m., Bussey said. Sustaita was booked into the Vista Detention Facility just
after 9 a.m., police said.
— City News Service
