CHICAGO — One good Samaritan died and another was injured trying to protect a mother and her 14-year-old daughter from a man who thought the girl cut in line and attacked them inside a grocery store, investigators said.
Berwyn Police said Humberto Guzman, 32, was stabbed multiple times when he tried to stop Fernando Barrios, who had punched the girl and her mother when she tried to intervene, WLS reported.
The mother works as a cashier at Valli’s Produce, the Sun-Times reported. The daughter asked her about the price of a bottle of water and the attacker thought she was cutting in line. He called the girl expletives and repeatedly punched her in the head, police said. The mother was hit when she tried to help her daughter.
Guzman then tried to stop Barrios, 30, from leaving the store and was stabbed four times in the chest, the Sun-Times reported. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Barrios ran from the area and was chased by grocery store employees and Kevin Landau, who had been shopping nearby, WLS reported. As he was being chased, Barrios stopped, turned and stabbed Landau in the torso. He was taken to a hospital where he was treated and released.
“I did not even know he had a knife,” Landau told WLS. “I did not know he stabbed a guy. I just knew he hit a little girl.”
Police later found Barrios in a backyard with a knife in his pocket. Police said he admitted to them he used the weapon to stab Guzman and Landau.
Barrios was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder, the Sun-Times reported.
Barrios told a judge during an initial court appearance that he had no choice.
“I believe I was being attacked by the male employees,” Barrios said.
Barrios has no previous convictions.