Three stabbed in fight at Balboa home

A Newport Beach man was being held on $1 million bail after he allegedly stabbed three people during a fight at a Balboa Peninsula home early Wednesday, police said.

Thomas Gerald Husting, 63, was arrested and held on suspicion of attempted murder. Police found him hiding in the home’s garage where he had been living, Newport Beach Police Sgt. Bill Hartford said.

Police were called to the home in the 500 block of Clubhouse Avenue at 12:36 a.m. Wednesday in response to reports of a woman screaming for help. Officers found 22-year-old Amanda Brown in the street, with a stab wound to her stomach. She told police that her foster mother, Kathy Porter, 60, was badly hurt inside the home. Frank Arcoleo, also a resident of the home, witnessed the stabbing and was cut by Husting when he tried to intervene, Hartford said.

The three told police the stabbings occurred after Brown and Porter tried to retrieve some personal photographs from Husting. Porter and Brown knocked on Husting’s door and asked for their property. When Husting refused to answer the door, the three got into an argument.

Husting opened the door and grabbed Porter from behind, slicing her neck and cutting her on the cheek with a sheath knife, about two inches long, Hartford said. He then dropped Porter and went for Brown, stabbing her in the stomach, Hartford said.

Brown, Porter and Arcoleo were taken by ambulance to Hoag Hospital Memorial Presbyterian where they were treated for stab wounds and later released.

In the last year, police have been called to the home six times. It’s unclear how many people were living in the home or what their relationship is to one another, Hartford said.

A witness unrelated to the incident told firefighter paramedics on scene that he was having a heart attack and was treated for a heart condition, Hartford said.