A woman is dead and 3 other people were injured in an apparent California stabbing spree

A woman was killed and three people were injured in an apparent stabbing spree Monday morning in Long Beach, California, police said.

A suspect in the last of the attacks was in custody, and there was no “active threat” to the public, the Long Beach Police Department said in a statement.

The suspect’s name was not immediately released. Investigators described the man as homeless.

The first of the attacks being investigated for possible links to the others took place near St. Mary Medical Center, one of two level II trauma centers in the city, police said. It was reported at 5:35 a.m.

The victim, identified only as a woman, was rushed to a hospital, where she died.

As officers were at that scene, another stabbing was reported at 6:25 a.m. about a half-mile away, the Long Beach department said. A man stabbed in his upper body was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, it said.

At 7:05 p.m. the last of the incidents was reported less than a mile south, along the city’s shoreline, where two people described only as male were stabbed, police said.

One of the two was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries; the other was treated at the scene by responding officers, the Long Beach department said.

“Officers have arrested a male adult suspect in possession of a knife at the scene,” it said.

NBC Los Angeles reported that one witness said a suspect was running along the shoreline at adjacent Alamitos Beach saying he planned to kill everyone in his path.

The attacks were under investigation by homicide detectives, police said. Motive was unknown. Detectives want to speak to witnesses, the department said.

The housing crisis in Long Beach, where the median home value is north of $700,000, has been worsening. A city homeless count in February found the number of people living on the street or in encampments increased 22% compared to 2020; the number living in vehicles was up 380%.

Roughly 9 in 10 homeless people in the city are from California, the city said.