Laguna Beach : Police Arrest Man in Beach Stabbing Death
A Mission Viejo man has been arrested in the fatal Thursday morning stabbing of a man on the beach, police said Saturday.
Christopher Lane Johnson, 21, was arrested Friday night at his workplace in El Toro and booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of murder, said Sgt. Danelle Adams. Bail has been set at $250,000.
Police are still investigating the motive for the murder, she said. Investigators were tipped off to the suspect by an anonymous phone caller, Adams said.
The victim, Derek Clifford Bowen, 27, of Laguna Beach was stabbed in the chest between midnight and 1 a.m. Thursday as he walked along the Cress Street beach, Adams said. Bowen apparently staggered up the steps from the beach and collapsed in the 1200 block of Ocean Front Street, police said.
He was flown by helicopter to Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo but was pronounced dead on arrival there.
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