Family dispute in Southern California ends with fatal samurai sword attack

A woman was killed and two others hospitalized after an apparent domestic dispute led to an attack with a samurai sword in San Dimas Thursday afternoon.

Officers with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department were called to the intersection of South Huntington Avenue and Basset Court shortly before 3:30 p.m. for a rescue response.

In video footage obtained by KTLA, a woman standing alone with blood on her right leg and hands can be seen holding the sword near a parked U-Haul box truck in the 300 block of South Huntington Avenue when police arrived on the scene.

As the officers approached, the woman waved them over.

It seemed as if she wanted to show them the sword, but when the officers asked her to, she immediately put down the weapon and raised her hands.

“This woman then leads them to a residence down the street where officers find another woman who also has lacerations and who was later pronounced dead at the scene,” LASD Lt. Daniel Vizcarra said at a press conference. “As they continued to search the residence, another woman was found there unharmed, who was also transported to a local hospital due to a medical emergency.”

According to reporting by Rick Chambers of KTLA, the emergency may have been a heart attack.

According to authorities, it is not yet known what triggered the deadly violence between at least two of the women, as the two women only speak Mandarin, which is delaying the investigation.

“The preliminary investigation suggests that there may be a family connection, but again we could not confirm that due to the language barrier,” said Lt. Vizcarra.

Aerial footage from Sky5 showed the area on South Huntington Avenue where the U-Haul truck was parked and the samurai sword lay in the street cordoned off with yellow police tape.

KTLA learned that interpreters were sent to the scene and the hospital to help investigators find out more about the exact incident.

According to investigators, there is no further threat to the community.