At least seven people have been injured after a mass stabbing in Washington, D.C., including a grandmother and her granddaughters, police say.
On Thursday, April 3, the Metropolitan Police Department announced in a series of posts on X at around 3:45 p.m. local time that investigators and emergency personnel were investigating a mass stabbing that injured several people at the intersection of the city’s Meigs Place and northeast Montello Avenue.
“MPD is on scene of numerous people stabbed in the area of Meigs Pl & Montello Ave NE,” the department tweeted, sharing an another location where the incident took place. “One suspect has been arrested.”
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A D.C. Fire and EMS spokesperson told ABC News that seven people were transported from the scene to the hospital.
In a press conference held at the scene later on Thursday, MPD Chief Pamela Smith called the crime “a senseless assault,” according to D.C. News Now — and shared that investigators had found the suspect lying on the ground nearby. Officers took the man, whose identity has not yet been released, into custody, and the bloodied handknife that was allegedly used in the incident was found on the ground nearby.
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Smith said that the man was in an “altered mental state from an unknown substance.”
“While walking down the street, the individual began stabbing himself and then stabbed a female acquaintance who was also with him. The suspect then stabbed others standing outside on the block,” the chief said, per D.C. News Now.
According to Smith, two “good Samaritans” tried to intervene during the stabbing and were injured.
Four women and two men were transported to nearby hospitals, and were all in stable condition as of Thursday afternoon, Smith added during the press conference. Among the victims were a grandmother and her granddaughters, but no minors were involved in the attack, FOX 5 DC reported.
“I will say this, even though we’re grateful for their intervention, we would ask that individuals who see incidents such as this not intervene,” Smith added.