Man recounts witnessing attack on 17-year-old Fleet Farm worker in Carver
CARVER, Minn. — Charges have been filed in an alleged attack that seriously wounded a teenage Fleet Farm worker in Minnesota over the weekend.
On Tuesday, the Carver County Attorney's Office charged a 31-year-old Kansas City, Kansas man with first- and second-degree assault — both felonies — in connection with the Sunday incident.
According to the criminal complaint, deputies responded to the Fleet Farm in Carver just after 2 p.m. on the report of a stabbing. When they arrived, deputies located a 17-year-old female employee receiving emergency care and suffering from a laceration to the back of the neck with "significant blood loss observed," the complaint said.
Authorities said the wound was "consistent with being stabbed with a sharp elongated object."
The victim reported that she did not know the person who stabbed her. She was taken by ambulance to Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis where she was last listed in critical, but stable condition, according to officials.
"All of a sudden I hear a girl scream, 'He stabbed me!' And yelled it multiple times," Travis Armstrong said.
He was shopping at the time of the stabbing and said his 15-year-old daughter, Ava, was waiting for him in the car outside, parked next to the suspect's vehicle.
"Just two years younger, I know, and that's why I think it hits really close to home. Because I recognize this could have been my daughter," Armstrong said.
According to the complaint, surveillance footage showed the man walking past the victim, but then returning to her and "making a striking movement" toward the victim when her back was turned. He was then seen running from the store and driving away before law enforcement arrived.
The suspect was later located in Chanhassen and arrested after a "high-risk traffic stop," the sheriff's office said. While being transported to Carver County Jail, the man told deputies that he "didn't stab anyone" and "I just well hit her with a plastic thing," the complaint said.
In a later interview, the man allegedly told a detective, "Maybe she said something that didn't sound right to me," so he picked up a "thing" and hit her with it. The complaint says he also asked the detective if the victim had "passed away."
A family friend of the victim posted on social media Tuesday saying the teenager was released from the hospital.
"You just feel horrible for her that she had to undergo something so traumatizing and what could have been easily life-threatening," Armstrong said.
As of the complaint filing, no weapon has been located in the incident.
If convicted, the man could face up to 20 years in prison on the first-degree assault charge. Court records show he has a gun conviction in Las Vegas. It's not clear why he was in Minnesota.