Police have arrested an alleged “damsel in distress” defender on suspicion of fatally stabbing a man inside a tiny cafe, authorities said.

Police arrested Carlos Padilla-Ovedio, 25, of San Francisco, on Sunday after they say he stabbed Jesus Hernandez, 33, of Daly City, inside Cafe Durango on 6286 Mission St. around 5 p.m. Friday. Hernandez was stabbed in the torso and taken to San Francisco General Hospital where he died.

Padilla-Ovedio and Hernandez were sitting separately in the seven-stool cafe in Daly City’s Top of the Hill neighborhood and were the only two customers when Hernandez allegedly made rude remarks to a waitress. Lt. Jay Morena said Hernandez has a history of making inappropriate comments at the cafe and has been asked to leave by the manager on previous occasions.

Morena said Padilla-Ovedio apparently came to the waitress’ defense in a “damsel in distress” type situation. Padilla-Ovedio, who had allegedly witnessed the harassment in the past, exchanged words in Spanish with Hernandez, Morena said. As the two stood up, Padilla-Ovedio allegedly stabbed Hernandez once while three cafe workers looked on, and ran out of the shop, fleeing a “pretty gruesome” scene, he said.

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Detectives Frank Mangan and Gregg Oglesby worked on the case virtually nonstop since Friday, working off a sketch and a suspect name of “Carlos.” Police released the information to city and airport police as far away as Los Angeles, and checked on board all local flights to Honduras. Eventually, Padilla-Ovedio was spotted in a church in San Francisco’s Ocean Avenue neighborhood.

When police confronted Padilla-Ovedio, a freelance carpet installer from Honduras, in his Revere Street home, he originally told police in Spanish that the stabbing was an accident, Morena said.

Acquaintances of the victim identified Hernandez as a quiet man who spoke only Spanish and lived just a few blocks from the cafe where he was a regular.

Outside the cafe, which has been closed since the stabbing, were two empty juice bottles that served as makeshift vases for flowers, with a small stuffed rhinoceros sitting between the bottles.

Friends added their tributes to Hernandez on a sign posted on the cafe’s door. Translated from Spanish, one of the messages read: “For a good friend who died for committing the sin of loving a woman that didn’t love him.”

mrosenberg@sfexaminer.com