Monday's Brutal Broadway Stabbing was a 'Random, Unprovoked, Senseless' Act, Say Police

The brutal stabbing of a 38-year-old Live Oak woman on Broadway Monday was a random, senseless and unprovoked act, according to Santa Cruz Police, who arrested and booked a suspect on suspicion of homicide.

Detectives are still trying to figure out where the woman was going and coming from when she encountered Charles Anthony Edwards III, of San Francisco, between Campbell and Ocean streets. They have found that she didn't know Edwards, who had been in Santa Cruz for a week.

Police said that Edwards has a history of violence in San Francisco, including assault with a deadly weapon and battery with serious injury.

They are withholding the victims' name until her next of kin are notified.

Police found Edwards a couple of blocks away shortly after the 11:50 a.m. call from passersby who witnessed a man brandishing a knife. He was stopped walking at Campbell and Barson streets and had dropped a bloody jacket and the knife nearby.