The man wanted for cutting another man’s throat at a West Highland restaurant had recently been told to leave a neighboring restaurant because he made other customers uncomfortable.

“He has been in here a handful of times in the past month,” said James Emerson, general manager at El Camino Community Tavern on West 32nd Avenue. “He was awkward and odd. He made the people around him feel uncomfortable; he definitely caught our attention. He was told to leave, and he left.”

Shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday, the man, armed with a knife, walked into the Mead St. Station Bar and Grill at 3625 W. 32nd Ave., which is across the street from El Camino, and cut a man’s throat.

Denver7 reported that Mead St. Station’s owner, Paul Burke, said the victim is a regular who was sitting at the bar when he was attacked from behind. The bartender “honestly thought he was hugging the other customer, and turns out, he had a knife in his hand and cut his throat,” said Burke. “It was terrifying.”

Denver police describe the assailant as a black man who is 6-foot-3 and weighs 250 to 300 pounds. Police arrested a suspect Wednesday evening but did not release details on his identity or a motive.

Mead St. Station was closed Wednesday, and staffers inside the restaurant appeared to be having a meeting. A Denver police detective spent more than an hour with them.

Someone who answered the phone at the restaurant said no one would comment on the incident.

“I was surprised that it happened in this location,” said Marty Salvi, a barber at Bull Locks Hair, which is next door.

The neighborhood, which has seen rapid gentrification, is generally quiet, Salvi said.

“There are a lot of women pushing their carriages around out here at that time of day,” he said.

But violence isn’t unheard of in the neighborhood.

On Feb. 22, a burglary suspect who carjacked a vehicle was killed in a shootout with police at West 35th Avenue and Lowell Boulevard. The shootout happened after police responded to a burglary in progress at a home in the 3000 block of West 37th Avenue. They caught one suspect, but the other fled. Shots were fired near the intersection of Lowell and West Moncrieff Place and again in the 3500 block of Lowell.

Police recently warned merchants to be watchful, saying there have been a number of break-ins in the area.