A law officers' group has awarded USD5,000 to Donny Hopkins, 32, who chased down an armed man. Now, southern California authorities are holding the man as a suspected serial killer.

Hopkins has more than a dozen years' experience as an operator of forklifts and other materials handling equipment but no previous experience in crime fighting.

The Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs made the presentation to Hopkins during a 25 January ceremony at its headquarters in Santa Ana. Hopkins was recognised for providing the information that led to the capture of Iztcoatl Ocampo, 23, now charged with killing four homeless men, a mother and her son.

Hopkins tells Forkliftaction.com News, "I just reacted" without thought of the consequences.

"I was off work less than 15 minutes," he recalls. "I was second in the checkout line at a CVS pharmacy in Anaheim, and a gentleman ran into the store" seeking help to halt a stabbing attack taking place in the drive-through lane of a nearby Carl's Jr fast-food restaurant.

"I dropped my things and ran out of the store and toward the (perpetrator), yelling for him to stop," Hopkins says. The stabbing continued until Hopkins was about 15 feet away. At that point, a chase began through a parking lot. The suspect ran into, through, out of and back into a mobile home park. Hopkins followed while trying to use his BlackBerry to call the 911 emergency telephone number, but "I was shaking badly".

The suspect hid momentarily between mobile homes, "ditched the (seven-inch-long, fixed-blade, military-type) knife and lost his black hoodie", Hopkins says. "He came out wearing a red shirt."

A resident sitting on a mobile home porch noted the clothing change and confirmed the identity of the suspect.

Hopkins says he observed the killing at 8:15 pm and was en route by 8:45 pm, accompanying police officers to a station for his eyewitness statement.

Hopkins started working as a forklift operator in a warehouse at age 19 and has continued mostly in similar positions with materials handling equipment.

In an early assignment, he was involved in an in-house forklift operator certification program during his tenure in a Fullerton facility of Iron Mountain Inc.

On 13 January, the day of the stabbing incident, Hopkins drove a gray aerial work platform, which he calls a cherry picker, in a temporary position at an Anaheim warehouse of Anixter International Inc. He received the work assignment through the Placentia facility of Express Employment Professionals, an operation of Express Services Inc.