Knife attack breaks out at Fresno Walmart after two couples get into heated argument

A knife attack at a Walmart parking lot in southeast Fresno resulted in a man suffering a head injury and several police scouring the busy area for the suspect.

It happened around 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Walmart off Peach Avenue and Kings Canyon Road.

Police said an argument broke out between two women inside the store and escalated when both of their boyfriends got involved and exchanged words.

The confrontation continued out to the parking lot, where one of the boyfriends pulled out a knife and struck the other man in the head.

Fresno Police Lt. Andre Benson said police still were determining if the victim was stabbed or struck with the butt of the knife.

The victim, a Hispanic man in his 20s, was in stable condition, Benson said. Benson added that the suspect was a Black man in his 20s and was believed to have fled on foot.

The busy nature of a Walmart parking lot prompted police to tape off certain areas and turn to store management to examine security footage.

“It was initially chaotic,” Benson said of police arriving on the scene. “It’s very busy here. There are a lot of families — women, children here. All of those people were very concerned because they didn’t know what had occurred.

“They’d only seen this male who’d been injured and the high amount of police presence.”

This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 8:48 PM.