Owner of Dragon Palace restaurant stabbed during argument with former employee

A Cuban national in his 30s was arrested following a stabbing incident at Dragon Palace Chinese Restaurant, 5223 N. Navarro, about 6 p.m. Sunday, according to Victoria police.

Sgt. Glenn Vaughn said that the victim, the owner of the restaurant, was taken to DeTar Navarro, where he was not in serious danger as of Sunday evening.

The sergeant said that around 4 p.m. the suspect, who had worked at the restaurant since Thursday, was in the process of quitting his job and got into an argument with the owner over wages he claimed were owed him. Police were called to the restaurant, and they broke up the fight.

The suspect left the restaurant, and a short time later police got a call from an apartment complex in the 3100 block of Sam Houston Drive, where employees of the restaurant are housed. Police said the suspect demanded payment from the wife of the restaurant owner, she called police, and the suspect grabbed her cell phone and broke it.

Sgt. Vaughn said that the suspect then returned to the Dragon Palace and again demanded money from the owner, who again refused. The suspect, the sergeant said, attacked the owner with a knife or a cutting instrument for chopping vegetables. Then he took money from the register and fled on foot.

Police called the bus stop to ask that they be on the lookout for the suspect. Shortly after 6, the sergeant said, police got a call from Stripes in the 3200 block of S. Laurent, where the bus stop is located.

Vaughn said that the suspect was arrested there without incident. In his first contact with the police earlier in the afternoon at Dragon Palace, the suspect had about a dollar on him. When arrested, said the sergeant, the suspect had "a large amount of money with blood on it."