Colorado woman arrested after stabbing Boulder police officer in shoulder

Boulder police officers arrested a woman after she stabbed an officer with a knife inside a store on Wednesday evening. She was taken into custody around 8 p.m.

Officers were called to the Lucky's Market at 3960 Broadway on reports of a woman, later identified as Patricia Murphy, 61, of Boulder, who was trespassing and refusing to leave. When officers arrived, they were told Murphy was behaving erratically, speaking nonsensically and had mud on her face. The officers spoke with Murphy for several minutes and tried to get her to leave the store. 

Instead of leaving, Murphy pulled out a knife and stabbed a male officer in the shoulder. As he backed away, she began advancing on a female officer and lunged at her with the knife. 

Additional officers arrived and tried to de-escalate the situation before they fired less lethal sponge rounds. That's when they were able to take Murphy into custody. 

"I'm very thankful that our officer's injuries were not more serious and also thankful to the team that negotiated with the suspect to get her in custody without any further injuries to anyone," interim Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn said in a statement.    

Murphy was taken to the hospital for evaluation before she was transported to jail. She is facing charges of first-degree assault, felony menacing, misdemeanor trespassing and misdemeanor obstruction/resisting arrest. 

The Boulder Police Department asks anyone who witnessed any part of this incident or has information relevant to the investigation to please contact Detective Tuck at TuckA@bouldercolorado.gov or 303-441-4322 reference case 24-04131.

The officer reportedly has non-life threatening injuries.