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Bystanders with gun, car stop attack on family in west Wichita, police say

An attack on a family in their car Wednesday evening was stopped by bystanders who used a vehicle and a gun to end the assault, officials said Thursday.

A Wichita police news release says 38-year-old Julian Luis Gonzalez was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and several other counts. Jail records say he was arrested on suspicion of four counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and two counts each of aggravated endangering of a child and criminal damage to property.

Gonzalez and two people were taken to the hospital, all with non-life-threatening injuries, Wichita police spokesperson Chad Ditch said in an email. The two were a 30-year-old man who Gonzalez reportedly stabbed and a 28-year-old woman who had minor injuries. She was cut while leaving a vehicle after a crash, Ditch said, adding that Gonzalez’s injuries were probably cuts from glass.

The situation unfolded at around 6 p.m. on Wednesday at West Street and Murdock.

Gonzalez “intentionally used” his car to hit another car, police say, driven by the 30-year-old man. The 28-year-old woman and two children — a 5-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl — were in the car.

“Gonzalez then exited his vehicle and began breaking the (other car’s) windows out with nun-chucks,” Ditch said in a news release. “The adult victims were getting the juvenile victims out of the vehicle when Gonzalez began stabbing the 30-year-old male in the lower body.”

A witness then drove her vehicle at Gonzalez, “resulting in the suspect disengaging,” Ditch said. A bystander then held a gun on Gonzalez while two others subdued him and others provided first aid to the man who had been stabbed, Ditch said.

Ditch said the suspect and victims know each other but did not say how.