Police: Man hit with shovel in dispute over bike outside Santa Rosa Popeyes

A fight in the parking lot of a Popeyes restaurant involving two men, a shovel and a box cutter led to an arrest Tuesday night in southwest Santa Rosa, police said.

Steven Silva, 36, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after attacking a 53-year-old man who refused to lend him a bicycle, Santa Rosa police said. The fight broke out at 7:30 p.m. in the restaurant’s parking lot on the corner of Stony Point and Sebastopol roads.

The man, who wasn’t identified, told officers Silva yelled and stomped on his bike after not letting him borrow it. Silva, who is homeless, then hit the man with the wooden handle of a broken shovel he found near the restaurant before attempting to stab him with a box cutter, police said in a statement.

The man managed to grab the shovel out of Silva’s hands and cut him above his eye, police said. Police suspect Silva was intoxicated at the time of the attack.