Carver, Minnesota — Charges have been filed in an alleged attack that gravely injured a teen Fleet Farm employee 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 shortly after 2 p.m. on a report of a stabbing. Deputies arrived to find a 17-year-old female employee receiving medical attention for a laceration to the back of the neck with “significant blood loss observed,” according to the complaint.
Authorities reported that the wound was “consistent with being stabbed with a sharp elongated object.”
The victim stated that she did not know who stabbed her. She was transported by EMS to Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, where she was categorized as critical but stable, according to officials.
Witnesses informed police that they heard someone scream “he just stabbed me” and then saw a suspect flee the scene, according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, surveillance footage captured the man going past the woman before returning to her and “making a striking movement” toward her when her back was turned. He was then seen fleeing the establishment and driving away before police arrived.
The defendant was later found in Chanhassen and detained following a “high-risk traffic stop,” according to the sheriff’s office. While being transferred to Carver County Jail, the guy told authorities that he “didn’t stab anyone” and “just hit her with a plastic thing,” according to the complaint.
In a subsequent interview, the man allegedly told a detective, “Maybe she said something that didn’t sound right to me,” so he grabbed a “thing” and smacked her with it. According to the complaint, he also asked the detective if the victim had “passed away.”
As of the filing of the lawsuit, no weapon was discovered in the event.
If convicted, the guy faces up to 20 years in jail for first-degree assault.