Police: Target Stabbing Suspect Is Delusional, Paranoid Career Criminal
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Police sources describe suspect Leon Walls as a delusional, paranoid career criminal, who should be in jail or a mental facility.
Sources tell KDKA's Marty Griffin that Walls has lived in nearly 20 different places since 1991 -- most of them homeless shelters or health centers.
Meantime, criminal records indicate he committed his first felony 22 years ago in California.
The violence, the victims, the random way last night's stabbing spree was committed shocked even veteran police officers.
"It kinda exploded inside the store," Pittsburgh Police Sgt. Tom Huerbin said.
Walls was swinging a knife in all directions inside the Target store.
As it turns out, the suspect has a decades-long criminal history.
His first felony arrest happened when he was 19 years old for which he pleaded guilty to robbery and battery charges, causing serious bodily injury.
According to police records, he was trying to rob a man and his girlfriend. In the process of trying to stop the robbery, the man accidentally shot and killed his girlfriend.
He was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Leon walls turns up again in New Jersey in 2007 for burglary, theft and criminal mischief charges. He served 18 months in jail.
In 2010 he was arrested in Atlanta, Ga. and was charged with aggravated assault.
He still has outstanding warrants there.
Walls was arrested again in Washington D.C. in 2011 on assault with a deadly weapon charges.
Records indicate he has outstanding warrants in Washington D.C. too.
"We got called for a man holding a female at the Target store at knife point," Huerbin said. "When we arrived at the scene, we found that we had four victims that had been stabbed."
Walls eventually turned up here in Pittsburgh, first grabbed by police last night.
Investigators say he has been living on the streets, in and out of local homeless shelters.
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