City teen charged in alleged weekend stabbing

WOONSOCKET – Police charged a 17-year-old male for repeatedly stabbing another with a knife during an altercation near East School and Rathbun streets Friday afternoon.

The victim, a 14-year-old boy, was treated at Hasbro Children’s Hospital for lacerations on his chest and back. Detective Sgt. Jamie Chamberland said the victim was later discharged from the hospital.

The alleged assailant was charged with one count each of assault with a dangerous weapon and possession of an unlawful knife, with a blade longer than three inches. Although they couldn’t immediately say why, the youth was on probation at the time of the stabbing. He also claimed to be acting in self-defense after he was jumped by a group of attackers, one of whom struck him in the head with a rock.

Following his arrest, he was held without bail at the Youth Detention Center over the weekend for a preliminary appearance in Family Court yesterday morning, Chamberland said.

According to police reports, officers responded to a report of a stabbing at 5:09 p.m. Friday and located the victim after weaving their way through a crowd of 30-40 onlookers. Patrol Officer Andrew R. Girard described the victim as “a shirtless male who had fresh lacerations to his chest and back...”

The victim immediately pointed across the street and identified his attacker, saying, “that...stabbed me,” using a racial slur to describe him.

Police took the alleged assailant into custody without incident. Police said the youth admitted that he’d stabbed the other boy, but claimed “it was self-defense because he was jumped.”

Police located a folding knife in the teenager’s shirt pocket.

An eyewitness who described himself as a friend of the alleged assailant gave police a statement that seemed to corroborate his story. The witness said he was on the porch of his apartment when he watched the incident unfold after his attention was drawn to the sound of his friend’s voice, screaming.

He then saw three to five teenagers jump his friend. One of the attackers tried to run away, but “he couldn’t so a brief struggled began,” the witness said. That’s when he saw his friend “stab the white kid with long hair several times, at least three times.”

Because they found so little blood on the knife, officers asked the witness how it could have been the weapon used in the stabbing. The witness told police he saw his friend wipe the knife clean before putting it in his pocket.

En route to police headquarters, the alleged assailant told police that he had been struck in the head with a rock during the altercation. Officer Girard’s report says the boy had an injury on the side of his head that appeared to corroborate his statements.

In addition to the accused attacker, police said they arrested a 14-year-old for disorderly conduct at the scene of the stabbing, but they did not have any details.