1 woman killed, 1 wounded in stabbings at Downtown bus stop
Police arrest man at the crime scene
A McKeesport man came up behind a Pittsburgh police officer and stabbed two women at a Downtown Port Authority bus stop Thursday, killing one woman, investigators said.
James Wyatt, 23, who was armed with a knife, was immediately taken into custody by Officer Chuck Handerhan around 11: 40 a. m. at a bus stop at Smithfield Street and Sixth Avenue, police Chief Scott Schubert said.
Officer Handerhan then provided first aid to the first woman who was stabbed, identified by the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office as Janice PurdueDance, 61, of Erie. She was taken to UPMC Mercy, where she died. The second woman, whose identity was not released, was struck in the mouth area and was in stable condition, according to police.
Cmdr. Victor Joseph, who heads the bureau’s violent crime unit, said it does not appear that the two women knew each other.
“We do not have a motive right now on why this crime took place — it seems, by all accounts, a random act of violence,” he said.
A witness’ video from the immediate aftermath of the stabbing shows a police officer with his gun drawn, pointing it at a man who is on the ground. A woman who appears to be wearing a hijab stands behind the officer, while another woman sits at the bus stop.
Police said in a statement Thursday that they currently have “no evidence” to suggest the attack was “racially or religiously motivated.”
Witnesses said one of the women in the attack was wearing a hijab; police said that was possible but would not confirm it.
The witness, Nick Emery, 31, said he heard screaming and looked up to see the officer with his gun drawn. He said the woman who was seated at the bus stop appeared to be seriously injured.
Officer Handerhan had been driving by and stopped to check on the woman after noticing that she was either asleep or passed out at the bus stop. As the officer evaluated Ms. Purdue- Dance, the man came up from behind and stabbed her in the neck. Witness Ron Sicilia, 62, said the woman was “bleeding profusely.” The man then spun and attacked the second woman, Chief Schubert said. Cmdr. Joseph said it was not clear whether the officer saw the man before the attack, but he praised the officer’s actions after the stabbing. “He put his finger in the wound to stop the bleeding,” Cmdr. Joseph said, adding later that the officer was a bit “shaken up.”
“This type of thing doesn’t happen every day in Pittsburgh, thank God,” Cmdr. Joseph said. “But he did his job.”
Mr. Wyatt was charged with homicide and aggravated assault and placed in the Allegheny County Jail. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Aug. 21.
Mr. Emery said he uses the bus stop, which is in a heavily traveled area of Downtown, about once a week.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “I was on my way to that very stop.”
Police shut down Sixth Avenue between Wood Street and Smithfield Street during the investigation. A large lunchtime crowd gathered in the area as police collected evidence and processed the scene.
A national spokesman for the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations ( CAIR), Ibrahim Hooper, said Thursday that his organization was monitoring the incident.
“Given the recent deadly attacks nationwide and increased Islamophobic and anti- immigrant rhetoric, CAIR is asking law enforcement authorities to investigate the possibility of a bias motive for the attack,” he said.