LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. – A man is in critical condition after deputies say he was stabbed in the chest outside a convenience store in Lake Worth Beach Saturday night.

Workers at the C&K Food Market, where deputies said the incident occurred, are still forced to walk past drops of the victim’s blood on the ground.

Shah Rayhan is the manager of the market. He said he knew all his customers and heard about the stabbing when he arrived at work the next morning.

“It’s very shocking. It’s very, very painful for me,” he said from behind the store counter.

Rayhan said the alleged attacker was a regular customer named Santos Aguilar-Oliva. He said Aguilar was drinking in front of the store when Rayhan’s co-worker told him to leave.

“He was very drunk and did a lot of things outside with other customers,” Rayhan said.

WPTV’s Kayla McDermott spoke with Rayhan’s co-worker by phone.

He asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, but explained that he did so after telling Aguilar-Oliva to leave. But Aguilar-Oliva returned minutes later with a gun in his hand.

“We were telling him you had to leave the store, but he refused,” the worker said.

Deputies said Aguilar-Oliva went home and grabbed an 8-inch kitchen knife before returning to the store and then confronting a customer outside.

At that time, investigators said Aguilar-Oliva chased the customer, stabbed him in the chest and continued stabbing him until the customer entered the store.

“I stayed silent. I saw his blood and everything and I called the ambulance,” the worker said on the phone.

Medical teams took the customer, who was in serious condition, to the hospital.

Deputies said Aguilar-Oliva then fled and they had to detain him at gunpoint.

They said he later made a full confession and faces a charge of attempted first-degree murder.

“I’m really glad the guy survived,” said Rayhan, who believes Aguilar-Oliva’s real target was his colleague.

He said he thought Aguilar-Oliva would come back because he was asked to leave the store and the customer was left hanging.

“He was just helping me,” Rayhan’s co-worker told McDermott.