Actor Todd Bridges Held After Stabbing of Tenant : Law enforcement: Former child star is arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. He and the wounded man tell different stories.

Former child actor Todd Bridges, who has a history of drug abuse and run-ins with the law, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after he allegedly stabbed his tenant with a kitchen knife in his Sun Valley house, Los Angeles police said Monday.

David Kitchen, 23, suffered a puncture wound to his right lung in a fight with Bridges on Sunday at about 1 p.m., Lt. Stella Mattson said. Kitchen, who has rented a bedroom in Bridges’ two-story house in the 10500 block of Dora Street for about a month, was in serious condition Monday at Holy Cross Medical Center, she said.

Kitchen was arguing with his girlfriend in his room at about noon, Mattson said, when 27-year-old Bridges confronted them and told them to be quiet or leave the house.

The men told police widely differing versions of the incident, Mattson said.

Bridges told officers later that he had argued with Kitchen over unpaid rent, police said. Kitchen began choking him but he managed to wrestle free, Bridges told police.

When Kitchen picked up a large sword, Bridges ran out of the room, down the stairs and into the kitchen, where he picked up an eight-inch kitchen knife, Bridges told police.

According to Bridges’ statement to police, he stabbed Kitchen in self-defense after Kitchen threatened him with the sword, police said.

Kitchen, however, told officers that he pinned Bridges on a bed after Bridges came into the room, Mattson said. Bridges then grabbed an object and hit Kitchen over the head with it, Kitchen told police.

“Then (Bridges) yelled, ‘I’m going to kill you’ and ran downstairs to get a knife,” Mattson said, describing Kitchen’s statement. As Bridges rifled around a drawer for a knife, Kitchen picked up a sword, he told police.

Kitchen told officers that Bridges went up to the room, threw a knife at him and missed, then picked up the knife again. Kitchen then put the sword down and asked Bridges to join him outside where they could “fight like men,” Mattson said.

Bridges ran up to Kitchen and stabbed him in the chest, according to Kitchen’s version.

Kitchen refused to talk to reporters at the hospital, and Bridges’ house mates declined to comment.

Bridges suffered cuts to his arm and leg and is in custody without bail, police said. Officers recovered the knife and sword.

Bridges, a former “Diff’rent Strokes” star, was already scheduled to appear Friday in Pasadena Municipal Court for arraignment on earlier felony drug and firearm charges. Burbank police said they found methamphetamines and a loaded handgun in Bridges’ car when he was stopped in Burbank in December.

Bridges was acquitted of charges of shooting a drug dealer eight times in a South-Central Los Angeles crack cocaine house in 1990.