Freed Again—Chaos Erupts in Target

A repeat offender freed just two days earlier walked into a California Target and nearly choked a stranger to death while families shopped with their kids.

Story Snapshot

A 34-year-old man allegedly walked into a Simi Valley Target and randomly choked a woman at checkout.
Cellphone video shows shoppers and a teen fighting him off as panicked families evacuate the store.
Police say the suspect had been released from custody only two days before the attack.
The case exposes how soft-on-crime policies leave law-abiding families exposed to violent repeat offenders.

Violent Attack In A Routine Shopping Trip

On a normal weeknight around 6 p.m., families at a Target in Simi Valley, California, went from picking up groceries to dodging a violent assault in the checkout lane. Police say thirty-four-year-old Rejean Tabor walked into the store and almost immediately began choking a woman who was standing at a register, a customer he did not know.^[5] Witnesses say she was turning limp as he squeezed her neck and would likely have died without quick action.^[3]

Cellphone video from the scene shows a woman jumping on the attacker’s back, trying to pry him off the victim as he keeps choking her.^[4] She is thrown aside as other shoppers rush in, including a father and his teenage son who were nearby.^[3] The clip captures chaos in the aisles as people scream, children cry, and carts scatter. What should have been a safe, everyday errand turned into a fight for survival in seconds.

Heroes Step In As Target Evacuates Shoppers

Witness Andy Garbe says he ran over when he saw the struggle and found one woman on the suspect’s back while he kept his hands around the victim’s neck.^[3] His fifteen-year-old son started filming while also trying to protect his four-year-old sister. After bystanders pulled the attacker off the woman, police say he moved toward the produce section and went after a sixteen-year-old boy who had his back turned.^[3] Shoppers again tackled him as the conflict spilled through the store.

At least several people, including a minor, suffered injuries while trying to stop the assault, though most were treated at the scene and released.^[5] The woman who was choked was taken to a hospital and kept overnight but is reported to be recovering.^[3] Employees triggered an emergency evacuation, ushering families out as the suspect threw items in the grocery aisle.^[1] Officers arrived and arrested him inside the store without further injury, ending a terrifying episode that had already gone far enough.^[5]

Repeat Arrests And A Broken Justice System

Documents and local reports show this was not the suspect’s first run-in with the law. Officials and coverage note that he had been arrested at least six times in the last two years and had just been released from custody two days earlier after a March arrest for indecent exposure and assaulting a police officer.^[1] Police say he is now booked on attempted murder, burglary, assault, battery, and causing unnecessary suffering to a minor.^[5] Many residents are asking why such a man was back on the street.

This is where anger naturally shifts from one violent attacker to the system that kept turning him loose. California’s soft-on-crime culture, light bail practices, and crowded jails mean dangerous repeat offenders often cycle in and out with little real consequence. When that happens, the risk is pushed onto regular families who simply want to shop without wondering if the person in the next aisle is a ticking time bomb. This Target attack is a vivid example of that cost.

Random Violence, Public Fear, And The Right To Self-Defense

Police and witnesses both describe the attack as random, with no connection between the suspect and the victim.^[2] That randomness is what rattles people most. When a stranger can walk into a bright, busy chain store and nearly choke a woman to death in front of kids, many Americans naturally think about their own families. People online are already asking why law-abiding citizens in California face strict limits on carrying a firearm, while repeat lawbreakers roam free.^[12]

Cellphone video taken Wednesday evening at a Target store in Simi Valley Los Angeles shows a man randomly attacking a woman while she was shopping, and then the good Samaritans who jumped in to help her and stop the man.

Police ultimately arrived at the store, arresting the… pic.twitter.com/ye3MOHw3K6

— Mike Netter (@nettermike) June 19, 2026

Modern phone video leaves little doubt about what happened inside that Target, but it also raises bigger issues. Viewers see brave Good Samaritans doing the job society expects the state to do: keeping predators away from innocent people.^[3] They see a justice system that somehow let a man with a long record walk free until regular shoppers had to tackle him in a clothing aisle. For many, this case is not about one store, but about whether leaders value public safety more than lenient ideology.