Transient allegedly hit kitchen helper

A 69-year-old Costa Mesa transient is scheduled to be arraigned today on charges that he tried to hit a local soup kitchen employee with a giant stick.

Joseph Tinnirello, 69, is in Orange County Jail in lieu of $500 bail after police said he tried to hit a Someone Cares Soup Kitchen employee with a 4-foot-long square wooden pole.

Tinnirello was arrested about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen, 720 W. 19th St., Costa Mesa, where an employee had tried to keep him from scavenging in the back of the building.

Sgt. Bryan Glass said Tinnirello had been scavenging in an alley nearby and made his way to the back of the soup kitchen, where he was confronted by the employee telling him to stop.

Instead of stopping, Tinnirello swung at the employee with the pole, Glass said.

He was arrested on suspicion of exhibiting a deadly weapon.

— Joseph Serna