Police: Man Steals Items, Pepper Sprays and Stabs Pursuing Orchard Supply Hardware Employee

A man with prior felony convictions pepper-sprayed and stabbed a hardware store employee during an alleged theft that spanned two confrontations, according to South Pasadena Police.

Jay William Brewer, a 48-year-old from Sylmar, was arrested by police for attempted murder after they found him hiding nearby the place he reportedly tried to rob — an Orchard Supply Hardware store located on the 400 block of Fair Oaks Avenue, according to a statement by authorities.

An employee of the store noticed Brewer had set off the store’s alarm as he left around 8 p.m on Sunday, and followed him outside to confront him. That’s when Brewer pepper-sprayed him, according to police.

Though the employee was disoriented, he continued to follow Brewer, who then took out a knife and stabbed him before fleeing, authorities said.

“During a second confrontation, the suspect produced a knife, stabbing the employee in the abdomen before fleeing,” said Sergeant Shannon Rebledo of the South Pasadena Police Department to the Pasadena Star News.

Brewer was arrested without confrontation and the pocket knife believed to be used in the stabbing was taken into evidence, authorities said.

The victim, a 50-year-old man, was taken to the hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries and no property from the store was recovered, police said.

Brewer has been previously convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, violating parole, robbery, criminal threats, possession of a dangerous weapon, and property and vehicle theft, according to the press release.

He is being held on $1 million bail at the Alhambra Police Department’s jail, awaiting his initial court appearance, according to Los Angeles County booking records.

Police are asking anyone with information about this incident to contact the South Pasadena Police Department at (626) 403-7297.